Sunday 24 August 2008

Steve Parry and Michael Phelps



A couple of days ago the BBC got their swimming pundit and Bronze medal winner Steve Parry to venture out into the crowds in Tiananmen Square and report on proceedings. Unfortunately, he was accompanied by a life-sized cut out of Michael Phelps which had been in their studio throughout the games. What fun ensued as an increasing number of people began gathering round him, mistaking him for Phelps, we were told. I suppose it was a mildly amusing snippet of video to run in between events.

By today, networks throughout the world must have been running low on new angles to cover on the Olympics, particularly as most events were over and only there was only the closing ceremony to come. So there was the BBC reporting on Parry’s adventure once more, only this time with the added twist that the story had been picked up by one of the American networks and Parry was being interviewed by what looked like a morning show anchor team. For some reason they were trying to get him to put on an American baseball cap, presumably to see if he actually looked like Phelps.

Talk about the media covering itself. BBC runs the story. American channel picks it up. BBC reports on American channel. Where will it end?

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