From the editor: The agony of the feature

I can’t stand the Olympics. Or, to be more precise, I can’t stand Olympic television coverage.

The competition can be thrilling. Even the biathalon—that bizarre combination of cross country skiing and target shooting—challenges the fitness, mental focus and skill of athletes involved.

But for every minute skis skid through man-made white powder snow, for every gentle shove propelling a curling stone down the ice, viewers must endure long stretches of blather. A study conducted by the Philadelphia Inquirer during the 1992 winter games found that in nine hours of coverage presented by NBC every...