If you have too much time on your hands and you want to have some fun, try monitoring the broadcast network newscasts and morning "news" programs for the next three weeks and see what they devote to the Olympics, which begin Friday in Beijing.

NBC will be televising the games. The "countdown" was launched this morning with The Today Show's Matt Lauer live from the Great Wall of China.

It's safe to predict that ABC, CBS and Fox won't judge the "news" value of the Olympics nearly as highly as will NBC. That's no surprise, given the amount of money NBC has invested in the Olympics. But it does nothing to dissuade already cynical news consumers who already believe that when it comes to "news" content on corporate-owned TV networks, dollars make a difference.