With the Olympics more than half over, complaining about NBC's coverage has become winter's biggest sport. The New York Times derided the Peacock Network's obsessively pro-American coverage, fawning profiles and inane commentary. Targeted for criticism: Matt Lauer's "no boundaries embrace" of skier Lindsey Vonn, Mary Carillo's lame feature on her attempts to become a Canadian Mountie, and the packaging of female snowboarders Kelly Clark, Hannah Teter and Gretchen Bleiler as "alpine Carrie Bradshaws."

"All nations give special, fawning attention to their own teams. But NBC commentators seem so wedded to script — and prepackaged gauzy biographies — that they act as if any deviance from the party-hearty line will somehow appear unpatriotic," Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley wrote.

In addition to complaints about tape delaying events and concentrating on tear-jerking stories, TV Squad details this litany of bad press about the NBC coverage:

• West coast viewers protested that, despite being in the same time zone as Vancouver, they were subjected to heavy tape delay.
• NBC News' Chuck Todd gets hammered by people on Twitter for tweeting results that haven't aired yet.
• Alyssa Milano tweeted "NBC = Nothing But Curlng."
• Stephen Colbert crawls into the "fireplace" in NBC's Vancouver studios, revealing it to be as real as the WPIX Yule Log.

Monday night's coverage had plenty to complain about: A ridiculous opening with Bob Costas exiting a seaplane, an interview with Michael Phelps (huh? This ain't the Summer Olympics), and "filler" segments on women figure skating practice sessions and a recap of American successes in Alpine skiing.

The telecast seemed more padded than usual, with nothing much in the last two hours but ice dancing, so viewers got extended shots of the Zamboni machine resurfacing the ice between groups of dancers. It was a great night to put the DVR on pause, go have dinner, and come back an hour later to zip through the boring parts.

For all the carping, NBC must be doing something right. Ratings are spectacular.

Which leads me to one last beef: Why don't U.S. gold medalists sing the national anthem? The Canadians sing their anthem, "Oh Canada," with relish and panache. Most recent example: Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir sang their national anthem at the top of their lungs after being awarded the gold medal. Most of the U.S. winners just stand there as if they've been practicing for the moment since childhood.

Could it be that "The Star Spangled Banner" is just too difficult to sing?