The reluctance to tackle the hot-button issues in the Olympic world mystifies me. Obviously, if you are coming from a country like China or Venezuela, you probably aren't getting rock 'em-sock 'em reporting. Or you are currently in a dangerous area that wouldn't bode well for that sort of thing. But barring that...
Could it be own personal egos in the way? I know of a few that could apply to. Finances? Certainly, what with budgets for business travel being cut or completely wiped out. Or maybe the audience isn't there? It seems that thud you are hearing is that there hasn't been for the past several years any issue that got people worked up. But that might change in the run-up to Beijing. Or maybe your hand is in the candy jar so far, you can't pull it out? Wouldn't be surprised on that score.
I see so many opportunities going to waste all because someone doesn't want to take a change on offending someone, or taking a stand. Sometimes you have to lay it all on the line and go for broke. There's a risk in that you will fall flat on your face, but OTOH, it just takes one question, one story, one opportunity for our readers (and bosses and co-workers, if we have them) to sit up and take notice.
So for the rest of the year, can we check our egos at the door and get down to serious reporting? Our audiences will thank us for it. And the issues of "playing it safe" will be relegated to that car insurance company and not the newsroom.
