BREAKING NEWS: Brand New Information on News Scripting

As I've said before, I don't watch sports. I don't read sports. I don't listen to sports. The most I have been exposed to sports this year was listening to my roommate scream about the Jets during football season. It's not that I don't like them, I just can't get that involved in them.

I figured it would be interesting to try to script a news story about updates in sports since it's a world I almost never look into. And really, who doesn't love the Olympics?
(I stopped scripting at about the 50-second mark)



MS OF REPORTER ALEX THOMAS IN FRONT OF BACKDROP OF VANCOUVER AT NIGHT
Thomas: For more than a decade, he's been one of the most gifted skiers in the world. But now Bode Miller finally has the reward that many would argue his talent deserves.

ZOOM ON IMAGE FROM MILLER'S DOWNHILL RUN
Thomas: He went into Sunday's super combined race with two Olympic medals already in the bag. Bode's downhill run was disappointing...

ZOOM ON IMAGE FROM MILLER'S SLALOM RUN
Thomas:...But the American flew down Whistler Mountain in the slalom leg...

ZOOM ON IMAGE OF MILLER POST-RACE
Thomas:...posting the third fastest time to be top overall and then waiting to see if he'd be beaten.

ZOOM ON IMAGE FROM SVINDAL'S RACE
Thomas: His biggest threat looked to be Aksel Lund Svindal, but the Norwegian crashed out of the slalom...

ZOOM ON IMAGE OF MEDALISTS MILLER, KOSTELIC, AND ZURBRIGGEN
Thomas:...to hand victory to Miller. Croatian Ivica Kostelić claimed the silver ahead of Switzerland's Silvan Zurbriggen...

CUT TO VANCOUVER OLYMPICS GRAPHIC: TIMES OF MEDALISTS
Thomas:...but Miller's gold was a historic one. It's his fifth Olympic medal and his third of these games in stark contrast to 2006 when he came away empty handed.

BODE MILLER PRESS CONFERENCE FOOTAGE

Observations-

My first observation is about the writing itself; even though I didn't really understand Alpine skiing or what the difference between combined and super combined were until researching them, I understood most of what the reporter was talking about. Hilliard talked about how sports writers have to cater to every demographic, the casual sports fan and the diehard, and I think it really showed in this video.

My second observation is about the speed of the broadcast. It seemed pretty long because I had to watch it a million times to script it, but it was really just a 50-second look at an entire day of skiing. It's amazing how they can condense such a large event as the Olympics into just a few minutes a day.

My final observation is about objectivity. News reporting is supposed to be objective and impartial, but this whole story had such a "WOOOOOH, AMERICA!" vibe to it. The whole story focuses on American Bode Miller's win at the Olympics, and I know that every country is focused on their own successes, but the fact that the other skiers got a two second mention and the rest of the video ends up being about more American success and little else just strikes me as a little odd.