Of Course, the Media Is Freaking Out Over Trump's Military Parade, But They're...
The Pulitzer Prize Was Just Awarded to a Publication That Pushed a Fake...
How Barstool's Dave Portnoy Handled This Ambush by a Local News Outlet
All This WaPo Reporter Did Was Show She Doesn't Know the Difference Between...
This Headline Sort of Guts The Washington Post's Pulitzer Win for Covering the...
If There's Anyone That Deserves a Military Parade, It's Donald J. Trump
Can We Pay Liberals to Leave Too?
Young Trumpian Conservatives Are Like the Young Reagan Conservatives of Yesterday
Price Controls for Medicine Have a Devastating Cost
'Trump Knows…' Eclipses the Iconic Bo Jackson Commercial 'Bo Knows…'
Can the West Win Wars Again?
Securing Digital Dignity: A New Line of Defense for Americans
Ignore the Elites — President Trump’s Housing Plan Is Working
From the Gridiron to the Rose Garden — America’s Comeback Starts Here
Small Businesses Aren’t Hiring - Because Big Cronyism Is Eliminating Them
OPINION

Olympic Watch - Beware of the Water, and Everything Else

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

Sochi, site of the Winter Olympic Games, has all the markings of being a total disaster. Like Ishtar, but with a bigger body count. Though the Games have not yet begun, reporters from around the globe are beginning to descend on the so-called resort town. What has greeted them is nothing more than poorly produced modern-day relics of the Potemkin Village known as Russia.

Advertisement

Chicago Tribune reporter Stacy St. Clair exposed the problem, and the comic relief. First, a photo of two glasses of yellow-ish/rust-ish third world "water." With the photo, a tweet from St. Clair stating:

My hotel has no water. If restored, the front desk says, "do not use on your face because it contains something very dangerous." #Sochi2014

What I wouldn't give for St. Clair to bring some of that back to the States so it could be properly examined! However, since I don't wish for reporters to be carriers of biological agents from Russia, I should hope that she does the prudent thing and leave them behind. (Just take a swab with a Q-Tip. OK? If it works for Law and Order, it should work for this!)

St. Clair brought levity to the situation, also tweeting:

Also on the bright side: I just washed my face with Evian, like I'm a Kardashian or something.

That tweet made me follow her immediately.

Other reporters were met with their own calamities. Hotels not completed, lobbies with no floors, elevators that don't work. Sidewalks with open drain pipes - literally, someone forgot to put the covers on - and curtain rods that don't stay up. And one sign that asked users to please not flush toilet paper down the toilet. You know, for health reasons.

Advertisement

Sure, one could say, there are problems. But the Russians will get them fixed. Why is everyone picking on them? What's that famous Russian expression again? Oh, that's right - It's just some glitches!

But it's not. It's a problem endemic of these games; That when the world is watching, Russia is unable to show a game face of competence. $51 billion has been spent on the game, and Russia couldn't finish building hotels. They can't get potable water to reporters who report - to news outlets worldwide! - what's happening at the Games.

I thought these former KGB'ers were experts at propaganda?

All that money, and security is still suspect at best. The constant specter of an attack has gone from long-shot possibility to an unfortunate and utterly frightening "place your bets!" with odds at near even. While President Obama has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has shared security details with him, DCI Advisory President Steven Yates is hard pressed to believe that anything of detail or of quality has been shared. On FOX News, he declared that the Super Bowl will have far better security than will be seen in Sochi. If something happened in Sochi, Yates asks, "Would the Russians be really open to international intervention to help?"

Advertisement

I have wished nothing but a safe trip for the athletes, and their safe return home. And I still do. Now I add the reporters to the list, as "Dangerous Face Water" may be more terrifying, and more damaging, than luge.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement