NBC And Their Double Standards!!!!!
You have to hand it to NBC!! They sure are assholes with double standards!!
On the morning of February 12th Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died while practicing on the luge track for the Olympics. By that afternoon, every network including NBC was showing the footage of his crash and death.
At first, CNN refused to air the footage because it was horrifying. NBC had no problem showing it though. In fact, they kept playing it over and over again to the point of being grotesque. They showed no respect for Nodar's family. After airing the footage for what seemed like the billionth time, they made the decision not to show it anymore. A little late don't you think?
I wonder why they really pulled the footage. Could it be because viewers were disgusted by this sick display of "curiosity"? Could it be because viewers threatened to boycott the coverage and NBC altogether? It certainly wasn't done out of respect for the family. If they had any respect, they would have never shown the footage to begin with.
To add insult to injury, they also had reporters in Georgia to get reaction from the people there including his family. This man died and they threw a camera and a microphone in his father's face. Real nice!!
Along came double standard number one. They ran a piece on Kevin Pearce, the American snowboarder who suffered a brain injury during training in December.
There's no footage of his accident. I certainly don't want to see it either. But I have to ask, why couldn't they show that kind of respect to Nodar's family? Why show one accident but not the other? Is it because they know they'd be sued by this family if they did? Because they thought they could get away with it with the other family because everyone was curious and it happened at the Olympics? Because one man died and the other didn't?
The other double standard happened with Joannie Rochette whose mother died a few days ago. They didn't throw a camera and a microphone in her face to get a reaction. Instead, they put Dan Jansen on the tv for an interview. I couldn't help but think that it came across more about Dan Jansen instead of about Joannie Rochette and her grief.
I get that Dan Jansen's sister died before his race at the Olympics. But the death of Rochette's mother isn't about Dan Jansen and what he went through. It's about Joannie Rochette and what she's going through. That interview was totally unnecessary. NBC didn't need to do it, and shouldn't have done it!! Dan Jansen offered his support and condolences in private. Leave it alone NBC!!
NBC needs to stop turning tragedies into an attempt to get ratings. They've been beyond disrespectful and downright disgusting!!
On the morning of February 12th Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died while practicing on the luge track for the Olympics. By that afternoon, every network including NBC was showing the footage of his crash and death.
At first, CNN refused to air the footage because it was horrifying. NBC had no problem showing it though. In fact, they kept playing it over and over again to the point of being grotesque. They showed no respect for Nodar's family. After airing the footage for what seemed like the billionth time, they made the decision not to show it anymore. A little late don't you think?
I wonder why they really pulled the footage. Could it be because viewers were disgusted by this sick display of "curiosity"? Could it be because viewers threatened to boycott the coverage and NBC altogether? It certainly wasn't done out of respect for the family. If they had any respect, they would have never shown the footage to begin with.
To add insult to injury, they also had reporters in Georgia to get reaction from the people there including his family. This man died and they threw a camera and a microphone in his father's face. Real nice!!
Along came double standard number one. They ran a piece on Kevin Pearce, the American snowboarder who suffered a brain injury during training in December.
There's no footage of his accident. I certainly don't want to see it either. But I have to ask, why couldn't they show that kind of respect to Nodar's family? Why show one accident but not the other? Is it because they know they'd be sued by this family if they did? Because they thought they could get away with it with the other family because everyone was curious and it happened at the Olympics? Because one man died and the other didn't?
The other double standard happened with Joannie Rochette whose mother died a few days ago. They didn't throw a camera and a microphone in her face to get a reaction. Instead, they put Dan Jansen on the tv for an interview. I couldn't help but think that it came across more about Dan Jansen instead of about Joannie Rochette and her grief.
I get that Dan Jansen's sister died before his race at the Olympics. But the death of Rochette's mother isn't about Dan Jansen and what he went through. It's about Joannie Rochette and what she's going through. That interview was totally unnecessary. NBC didn't need to do it, and shouldn't have done it!! Dan Jansen offered his support and condolences in private. Leave it alone NBC!!
NBC needs to stop turning tragedies into an attempt to get ratings. They've been beyond disrespectful and downright disgusting!!
posted by ParisL0ve2 @ 9:24 AM
3 Comments:
At 5:21 PM,
I.N. said…
I actually thought NBC handled it well by having Dan Jansen speak. Otherwise it would have been like a fast-forward to her short program, and the first thing you hear about her mom is from the announcers in the rink.
Dan Jansen wasn't acting self-centered. Dan is one of the few people in the world who can begin to relate to her, and he was trying to give viewers a sense of what Joannie might be going through--and he was careful to say that it's only his guess--because it's such a unique situation (fortunately). You can exactly do that without talking about your own experience.
I found it particularly interesting what he said about getting her body back. He said that when he got the news, his mind was so shattered that his body went into a stunned state (I suppose it's kind of like when you're so scared or upset that you can't move, but times 1000x), and that the few days wouldn't have helped with Joannie's mental grief, but it might have, hopefully, diminished the physical consequences.
Non-athletes mostly have just thought about the mental grief she must be feeling, so I thought what he said about the physical aspect was interesting, and it wasn't something I would have thought of.
I'm glad they put Dan there instead of some sports psychology "expert".
At 5:29 PM,
I.N. said…
P.S. While I've defended Jansen, there is no way to defend sticking a camera and microphone in the faces of Nodar's family in the worst days of their lives. If I were his father, those reporters wouldn't have made it back out of that house.
At 6:37 PM,
ParisL0ve2 said…
I didn't say that Jansen was acting self-centered. In fact, I didn't attack Jansen at all.
I applaud him for reaching out to her and offering his condolences. That was a truly classy thing to do. But NBC is classless!!
I can't imagine people talking about you on television while you're grieving, and debating whether or not you're doing the right thing.
Yes, I understand that Jansen went through a similar situation when he was an Olympian. However, I didn't need a sports psychology "expert" to tell me what she may or may not be going through based solely on their own experience.
Everyone handles things differently, and it shouldn't be up for discussion no matter how well intentioned it was on Jansen's part.
Again, my issue was not with Jansen. It was with NBC.
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