When did the Olympics turn bad? From reading headlines over the last week it would seem the Games have flopped even before the starting gun has been fired.
Words including fiasco, shambles, slum and prison have littered front pages and news reports.
They are all designed to do one thing - create a massive sense of collective failure.
It has now reached mouth-frothingly epic levels: "BEACH BUMMER" reports The Sun's front page today.
"The London Olympics were dealt another blow last night - as the cool summer threatened to make beach volleyball girls cover up.
"They have been told they can swap bikinis for leggings and tops if it is below 16OC."
And here's the best bit: "PM David Cameron, whose flat overlooks the sport's venue, was said to be monitoring the situation closely."
Even the British weather has failed to embrace the Olympic spirit. Give me strength!
I was asked at the weekend, while at a wedding in York, why the media focuses on the negative rather than embrace the positive aspect of hosting the greatest show on earth.
The answer was simple: "Everything going well is not a story," I said. "It's just not."
So when events such as the G4S security 'crisis', the M4 closure and Heathrow's inability to run an efficient border control process emerge, it's a no brainer for editors. In fact, it's what we want to hear.
Don't take it personally Lord Coe. There were similar negative panic stories over racist football fans at Euro 2012. While there were isolated incidents, it was generally accepted that the media got it wrong.
I remember living in Sydney ahead of the 2000 games and listening to people work themselves into a frenzy about the downside of the Olympics: the traffic, the cost, the legacy.
It's a carbon copy of the London experience.
But while we (the media) sit at our desks (in London), it's worth remembering that for millions of people across the country, the games are not about security fears, border control issues or the flow of traffic on the M4, they are about celebration.
It's a chance for Britain to show off its talent to the world.
Focusing on the positives and the collective excitement might actually make the media appear a lot more relevant and engage the public far more.
Follow Stephen Hull on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hullstephen
Of course we could just unquestionably clap and cheer all this along.
Ridiculous ticket allocation procedures, at ridiculous prices, booking sites freezing.
Ridiculous seventeen vehicle convoys to haphazardly parade torches around the country. Pontificating by politicians, who just want political advantage from the games.
Ridiculous rule making by ex-sportsmen.
"Forward planning" by people who could not organize a back garden BBQ for twenty people, let alone a once in a lifetime opportunity like this!
I am quite sure once the games start the population as a whole will embrace the whole ethos of the games, after all, that is what it is all supposed to be about!
If I was cynical, I would say:
- the weather is bad: Lust goes down
- Everyone has already spoken about the cost of the event so greed is late
- Remains Fear: "it will be a disaster, blah, blah, blah, ...": people love to hear about future failure
And in any circumstances the journalists will always say that it was great afterwards because nobody will want to read about past failure but about how "the british people came together to demonstrate the strength of the country , blah, blah,..." to play on the pride.
It's always the same for all big events: over-warn about disaster then over-emphasize the success
When the cost rose from £2.5 billion to £9 billion. We've been suckered - and we know it.
Apart from Bradley Wiggins in Paris (today - hopefully), what else have we to celebrate at the moment?
The Olympics Games is a great event about personal endeavour and belief, achieving the greatest highs and coping with disappointment - the money is irrelevant to true competitors and supporters.
Finally, will everyone stop bleating on about being skint and criticising others for making money. I'm skint and I'm happy - most people I know who have money are miserable as sin. So stop whingeing everyone and enjoy the Games.
http://www.knowledgegenes.com/Olympics.aspx
We are all broke and going through the hardest times most of us have ever known and the likes of Seb Coe, Boris Johnson and the multi-national companies lining their pockets out of what should be a celebration of Amateur sportsmanship is sickening.