Left Flank

I knew there was a reason why I hate MSNBC.

For the various components of NBC Universal, these two weeks can feel like all-Olympics, all the time. NBC, which paid nearly a billion dollars for the rights to these games, is broadcasting 24 hours a day on its networks.

There's daytime coverage on MSNBC and NBC's flagship broadcast network. In the evening, NBC broadcasts in primetime the marquee events, like gymnastics and swimming. And in the overnight hours, there's still more coverage on cable.

NBC is also trying to drive viewers to its Web site, NBColympics.com, putting over 2,000 hours of coverage online, including live events, on-demand video, and extensive features.

But in this Internet age, NBC is struggling to enforce its U.S. broadcast rights. Friday's opening ceremonies, for example, were taped and held for air in the U.S. in primetime nearly 12 hours after they'd begun in China.

But clips popped up all day on popular Internet sites like YouTube. And throughout the first days of the games, NBC was constantly requesting that video of events be taken off Web sites with U.S.-based audiences.

Should I feel sorry for MSNBC's «plight»? Should I applaud its ability to monopolize coverage of a media spectacle, that with this Chinese iteration, seems like it's taking place in a more glitzy version of a «gated community» in some sanitized version of Beijing??

Orin Kerr at The Volokh Conspiracy: «At first blush, I think that the Video Privacy Protection Act prohibits this; the Google/EFF analysis provided in the link strikes me as correct, and the decision as incorrect.»

The Korean War in Color,, a 90-minute documentary featuring color footage, is available on YouTube, in nine segments, and at ROK Drop.

I'm watching the second segment now, but the first segment glanced over some key political aspects of the start of the war that today have become political footballs. The first months of the war until MacArthur's removal were in many ways the least durable legacy of the war. The debate over who invaded first, how the Korean People's Army captured Seoul, Task Force Smith, and the incident at Nogun-ri, as well as the two years of negotiations between the DPRK and US loom larger than the tactical aspects of the war.