The bombing at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta last Friday left the folks at NBC Sports in a most difficult position.
They could neither downplay nor ignore the tragedy. And, to their credit, they did neither.But, at the same time, the Games had to go on. NBC paid $456 million for the rights to broadcast the Atlanta Games, and millions of viewers out there wanted to see the events.
The tone that NBC sportscasters took on Saturday was subdued. There were frequent updates on the investigation into the bombing, interspersed with coverage of the Olympic events.
But, while there's been some criticism of NBC for deciding not to carry Saturday afternoon press conferences by the lead investigators, the network pretty much did what it had to do. It reported the news that came out of the press conferences.
And one could make the case that, had NBC stopped covering the events themselves, the terrorism would have succeeded in destroying the spirit of the Games. (Not that NBC's motives were altogether altruistic - there was all that advertising money to consider as well.)
By far the weakest part of NBC coverage came in the initial hour after the bombing. Late-night hosts Jim Lampley - despite having been a local news anchorman in Los Angeles - was not up to the task. And Hannah Storm was clearly out of her league. Her tone and delivery were an embarrassment to the network.
Fortunately, by 12:20 a.m. Tom Brokaw was on the scene to relieve them. And he remained until handing the broadcast back to Bob Costas some seven hours later.
By Sunday, NBC's Olympic coverage was pretty much back to normal. Announcers were joking and laughing and getting caught up in the events.
It was, perhaps, a bit too much too soon.
But, on the other hand, the Olympics should be about more than just some idiot (or idiots) trying to ruin them by killing people. And so should television's coverage of the Games.
INSECURITY? KSL-Ch. 5's Brad Steinke took it upon himself to rename a sporting event last week. During Wednesday's 10 p.m. newscast, he repeatedly referred to the "Pioneer Day races" that had taken place earlier that morning.
Those would be the Deseret News/Granite Furniture marathon and 10k, by the way. And the Deseret News not only originated the events, but still runs them.
What makes this particularly interesting is that, earlier in the day, the folks at Ch. 5 had repeatedly referred to the "KSL Days of '47 Parade." This for an event KSL neither founded nor operates.
Are they really that insecure at Ch. 5 that they can't bring themselves to even mention the name of another media outlet?