Olympic moments

The real revelation in recent footage of protests over the Beijing Olympics was not the image of a Reporters Without Borders demonstrator being dragged away by Greek security guards dressed like stewards on the Hindenburg. It was that during his protest, at the Athens torch-lighting ceremony, the sole camera feed cut first to a long shot making it difficult to see what was happening, then cut away entirely -- to stock footage. After a decent interval, coverage returned to the main event: a boom-camera shot of a stately ceremony featuring women in faux-classical gowns.

This is the kind of emergency editing that viewers of Syrian or Burmese TV are accustomed to seeing when the news takes a direction unfavorable to local dictators. It says something about the so-called spirit of the Olympics that the first inclination of the people covering the event was to try to suppress unwanted information. And it says even more about the contemporary media and political environment that this and similar efforts are failing, spectacularly.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has hinted that he might decline to attend the opening ceremonies. President Bush, who is planning to attend, nevertheless has had strong words for President Hu Jintao about China’s harsh suppression of Tibetan demonstrations. The route of the Olympic torch has thus far been plagued by obstructions, protests and banners. And the violence in Tibet has cast a possibly lasting pall over the Summer Games.

At times like these, it’s customary to repeat bromides about how the grandeur of amateur competition should transcend parochial interests. And it’s true that legitimate concerns about human rights, democracy and the behavior of authoritarian thugs can lead to knee-jerk politicization of the event -- such as recent strident calls for Bush to shun the Games.

But this is shaping up to be the most exciting political Olympics since the end of the Cold War. The speed with which Beijing has lost control of the Olympic script is not cause for cynicism but for celebration. Strife, ferment and the painful progress toward liberal modernity by a freedom-challenged great power may not be what the International Olympic Committee prefers to show us, but it’s a lot more interesting than another round of sports utopianism and pretty production values.