Olympic journalist feels like she deserves more free stuff

Let's be fair. The journalists at Sochi have been through a lot.

Let's be fair again: Eventually, endless spools of complaints out of the Russian Olympics are going to get old.

Maybe we haven't quite reached that point - every time you think you're done reading stories about busted door knobs and stray dogs in people's rooms, a new one comes out - but whoever greenlit this story on how journalists aren't being compensated with enough Sochi swag is completely out of touch.

"Not to sound ungrateful or anything but . . . that's it? That's all the booty journalists are going to score from these Winter Games? Fifty-one billion bucks Russia spent on this extravaganza but they went for austerity on the swag?"

It's warning enough that the cliche "Not to sound [adjective], but I feel [the definition of the stated adjective]" is employed here. "Not to sound ungrateful or anything but... that's it?" is pretty much the definitive example of said cliche.

The column goes on to explain the great things writers received at past Olympics, and how all these fancy-schmancy journalism "ethics" get in the way these days of journalists getting free, cool stuff. Pretty easy to relate to for everyone.

Don't you hate it when your company sends you to a planetary athletic event for free to cover sports and have experiences that will make your writing more interesting just by being there but then the event doesn't reward you well enough just for showing up?

I hate that.