September 29th, 2000
In Sydney, NBC Tests Positive; Is Network's Olympics Coverage Too Upbeat?
By Paul Farhi
Washington Post
There’s been much to celebrate in this year’s Olympics, and celebrate it NBC has. In its prime-time coverage, the television network has concentrated on such stirring stories as Australian sprinter Cathy Freeman’s victory in the 400 meters, American dominance in swimming events, and the odd Olympic surprise, such as a U.S. wrestler’s stunning win Wednesday over his heavily favored Russian foe.
But it’s what NBC has been reluctant to show that has stood out to some observers.
Political machinations, sporting controversies, money scandals within the International Olympic Committee, suspicions of widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs by athletes--only rarely has any of it crowded out the central themes of NBC’s coverage: heartwarming, often flag-waving, stories of human effort, triumph and defeat.
American athletes have not only been shown receiving their medals on the victory stand--many have also been invited to NBC’s Sydney studios to be interviewed in front of footage of their medal ceremonies. The network ran an “Olympic Moment” feature several nights ago comprising clips of American athletes standing at attention for the anthem; reporter Jimmy Roberts lauded the medal ceremonies, never mentioning that they have been criticized for generations as jingoistic. It was followed by a McDonald’s commercial featuring clips of athletes on the victory stand.
“Television and international sport are part of the entertainment industry,” says Robert Lichter, president of the Center for Media and Public Affairs in Washington. “That’s what we’re seeing now. The Olympics are about the triumph of the human spirit, but they’re also about big bucks and power politics. Guess which side isn’t getting covered?”
NBC defends its record, saying it has been on top of breaking news stories, such as allegations of drug use by American shot-putter C.J. Hunter and Romanian gymnast Andreea Raducan. It also aired an 11-minute piece before the Opening Ceremonies recounting bribery allegations surrounding Salt Lake City’s bid for the 2002 Winter Games. “We stand by our reporting,” says Cameron Blanchard, a network spokeswoman. “NBC is a news organization, and as a news organization we conscientiously cover all these stories.”
However, the IOC segment strongly suggested the organization’s leadership had addressed its problems, even though the leadership that was embroiled in the bribery scandal remains unchanged. It also didn’t mention recent reports linking some lower-level IOC members to criminal elements. The story “was positive as far as the IOC was concerned,” says Neal Pilson, a former president of CBS Sports who now runs a consulting company.
Some critics question whether NBC can really be an objective source when it has so much riding on the Olympics. In addition to paying a record $ 705 million for the rights to cover the Sydney Games, the network has agreed to pay the IOC $ 2.8 billion for all winter and summer Olympic Games through 2008. NBC’s payments are the largest commitment, by far, of any broadcaster.
“What we’re seeing is one big promotion for every other Olympics, and it makes perfect sense,” says Robert Thompson, a professor of television and film at Syracuse University. “The message NBC has to get out is the same as the message the IOC wants them to get out. . . . They have become the running-dog lackeys of the IOC.”
Thompson points to the network’s coverage of the women’s gymnastics competition. While the network aired feature stories focusing on the top competitors’ rigorous training methods, it made no mention of reports of widespread eating disorders and serious injuries among young gymnasts. NBC’s Blanchard responds that NBC News and MSNBC covered those stories after the 1996 Olympics.
Further, while NBC did mention the Chinese practice of taking children away from their parents for years of training, it suggested this was part of the price of success rather than “a bizarre eugenics experiment” sanctioned by the Chinese government, according to Thompson. “I guess that would have interfered with the great goose bumps of human triumph, which was the story line for them,” he says.
NBC has also been a gracious and respectful visitor in Australia, regularly producing stories about the nation’s natural wonders. It has provided positive and uplifting stories about Australian history, such as a long report by news anchor Tom Brokaw about the Australian who aided a stranded Navy officer named John F. Kennedy during World War II.
Monday’s prime-time coverage was dominated by the story of sprinter Cathy Freeman, the Australian gold medalist. Freeman is an Aborigine who stirred up her native country a few years ago by insisting on carrying both the Australian and Aboriginal flags on her victory laps.
NBC used Freeman’s experiences to acknowledge Australia’s historic abuse and exploitation of its native population. Yet outside of Freeman and the tribal dancers who performed at the opening ceremonies, NBC hasn’t shown many Aborigines or told their stories.
The TV images instead suggested not Australia’s historical dishonor but what NBC’s announcers referred to as its “reconciliation” with its native people--Freeman as national treasure, embraced by roaring crowds inside and outside the stadium.
Such upbeat coverage comports with the wishes of NBC’s advertisers, asserts Gary Ruskin, director of Commercial Alert, a consumer watchdog group in Washington. “It’s bad for selling to be juxtaposed next to stories about the exploitation” of a group of people, he says. “Soft claptrap works much better.”
Pilson says NBC is covering the Olympics much as other networks have over the years, including CBS Sports in 1992 and 1994. “We looked at it as an entertainment event,” he says. “We used to say we’re producing a feature film a day, with a beginning, middle and end, and heroes and villains. It’s not really a news event.”
Adds Pilson: “People in the news media fail to understand that the sports division doesn’t think like them. Our guys [at CBS Sports] always wanted to do investigative reporting. I told them, ‘That’s the role of the news division.’ They didn’t understand that two years from now, you’ve got to go renegotiate rights for millions of dollars and the [rights holder] will remember what you’ve said about them.”
NBC’s Olympic coverage draws praise from a fellow broadcaster, ABC’s Jim McKay, who has served as host of Olympic telecasts 11 times. “They’re doing as good a job as they can,” says McKay. He thinks NBC’s biggest problem isn’t the tone of its coverage, but the 15-hour time difference between the United States and Sydney, which has motivated NBC to show all events on tape. This has apparently suppressed the audience for the Games, since many people find out what happened long before NBC shows the events.
McKay also says that one element of NBC’s declining Olympic ratings--about 10 percent below the network’s predictions--has been largely beyond NBC’s control. The IOC’s decision to alternate the Winter and Summer Olympics in two-year cycles, instead of having both Games every four years, has reduced the novelty of an Olympics, he believes. Because viewers now see Winter or Summer Games every two years, “we’ve lost something special,” he says. “There always seems to be an Olympics coming.”
In fact, the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City will open just 16 months after the Sydney Games close, to be followed 17 months later by the 2004 Summer Games in Athens. NBC will cover both of them.