Navigation |
Double standard for Matt Mitcham?I was following Matthew Mitcham and saw his dramatic win in the 10 meter platform. I just ran across this article. Could it be that NBC had a double standard for Matt? I don't mind that no mention was made of his sexual orientation. I do mind that I didn't see his family and partner in the stands. I realize that they can't cover everything but certainly his performance warranted at least one shot of his family and partner. Here is part of the article. UPDATE: NBC did not mention Mitcham's orientation, nor did they show his family and partner who were in the stands. NBC has made athletes' significant others a part of the coverage in the past, choosing to spotlight track athlete Sanya Richards' fiancee, a love triangle between French and Italian swimmers and Kerri Walsh's wedding ring debacle. Here is the link to the full article Submitted by Jericho (7 points) (1 post) on Sun, 2008-08-24 02:19. |
User login |
Unfortunately
Unfortunately it seems this sort of thing only applies to the American athletes but the announcers do seem very well informed with what they are talking about when they're covering this sort of stuff. I guess Australians aren't as deserving or inspirational.
I find it kind of weird though that they didn't mention it because I thought gay men made up a significant portion of viewers for the men's diving competition. So much for NBC knowing how to please viewers.
Mitcham kisses partner on NBC Olympics site
I don't know how exactley the medal ceremony played out on NBC but if you watch the full video of the medal ceremony, after the medal presentations you can see Micham go into the stands, give his mother his roses, and give his partner a quick kiss. The link has been provided.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.html?assetid=0823_hd_dvm_au_l1789r7&channelcode=sportdv
What a great link
That was beautiful
He was so happy and exuberant. Kissing his partner, even on the cheek, is more than I think any gay athlete has ever done at a major event.
NBC is biased
NBC is biased in many levels anyway, so it didnt surprised me. NBCs coverage is gets worse every time. Everybody else tunes to see the world compete, the US is made to tune to see the US compete. For me, it misses the point of the Olympics.
I saw coverage of 4 other countries and while naturally they put emphasis in its atheles, they featured the heavy hitters of each sport just te same, no matter where they came from. NBC almost only does this if its in direct competition with a known US athlete. So first reason: hes australian.
The second, of course, he is gay. Too much for middle america.
I could not resist myself, so I downloaded the whole competition last night. This morning I found a clip of his road to the gold with every single dive and the medal cerenomy.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6iyuo_matthew-mitcham-medaille-dor_sport
Also doesn't help
It also doesn't help that Diving is a sport where the U.S. team has been shut out completely in these games. NBC is well-known for American-centric coverage, although admittedly it's not as bad as it used to be.
Since the U.S. wasn't placing well in Diving in general and since Mitcham is an Australian I'm actually not surprised that they didn't focus more. They should have, because it was such a stunning upset for China which seemed assured of absolute victory and it was pure high-drama the way Mitcham came out from behind to win at the very end. It was almost like a movie.
The American-centric coverage is understandable, what is ....
It's one thing for NBC to focus on the events/contestants yielding the highest ratings as this is about money and pleasing your US-based audience; however, with the exception of a some commentator during synchronized swimming, so many others show little professional objectivity and pander to the masses. Bob Costas should have slapped a few, starting with insufferable Bela Karoli, as they might as well had Beavis and Butthead doing the commentary.
In some instances some of the experts brought in by NBC to do the color commentary made Dick Button seem like Paula Adbul as they ragged on the judges for being too tough on US athletes and for being over generous with those from almost every every other country except the US. Obviously this is based on perception as judging is not scientific, but give the world a break as the US has always been a powerhouse and not a country like Moldova, which not medaling in one event would have kept it off the board entirely. There is no post 9/11 conspiracy and even if there were, let the results speak for themselves.
Also, while it may sound like I am being overly critical of my beloved country, NBC and US-based websites seem to be the only ones putting the US on top in these Olympic games. While China had 100 medals to the US's 110, China won 51 gold medals while the US earned 36. Even US-based Wikipedia lists medal count totals based on gold. I am guessing that the gold versus overall medal presentation won't matter in the next Olympic Games as China will likely take them both.
It's OK to cheer like mad for your country (and hot men - I am adding that one), but another one for NBC not to reel in commentators who keep talking out their butts and making some of us want to tune them out and enjoy whatever coverage is on as the images from Beijing have been majestic as have the graphic presentations, as exemplified by the swimming coverage. No John Madden X's and O's.
Guillermo's Media Guillotine: Entertainment, journalism, politics, and popular culture.
http://springintoaction.typepad.com
Then I must be different than y'all.
Part of the reason that I don't watch the Olympics (well, aside from that whole athletic thing) is the whole rah-rah nationalism crap that goes on. If it was genuinely global in its coverage, showing the French athletes, the Greeks, the Nigerians, the Thais, the Peruvians, etc., I would probably watch more of it. I can walk out my door and see Americans swimming in a pool, ya know?
Matthew Mitcham's event is the only thing I watched during the whole hullabaloo. That the final medal-holders are Australian, Chinese and Russian makes this American happy regardless.
Check out my blog: http://radicalsexy.blogspot.com/
Ohh, the medal tally issue
There is an international standard for the medal tally established by the IOC, is based on gold medals won. Every single country uses it, except the US. They choose to base their on total medals won, JUST so it could put itself in no. 1.
You have no idea of the joke it became during the games outside the US. It was evident from about the third or fourth day on. It came up in conversations, posts and comments in the net and even tv coverage. I really dont know what they were thinking, Im sorry to say it didnt look good at all.
Not to defend NBC but...
Actually, most countries, even Canada, tend to focus on primarily their own athletes, as well as the top contenders from other nations. I don't fault NBC for focusing mainly on the American divers and the favoured Chinese divers. I also don't think NBC avoided mention of his sexual orientation because of any wish to "spare" middle America. His nbcolympics.com athlete profile mentions his orientation and his hope of finding a way to bring his partner Lachlan to Beijing to support him.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/athletes/athlete=1168/bio/index.html
Where I do think NBC clearly dropped the ball was in their shocking lack of preparation. They concentrated so much on the Americans being boyhood friends, their rooming together and their families staying together while in Beijing, as well as on all the hype surrounding the Chinese divers, that they totally overlooked and ignored the other contenders.
Did NBC show the diving finals live at all or just the evening edited broadcast? In that edition, they didn't even show Mitcham's 1st and 3rd dives (which were his worst ones of the finals). Perhaps the NBC play-by-play crew took bathroom breaks during those dives and they had no commentary recorded at those times. Anyway, I got the sense that they didn't say much about Mitcham because they weren't really prepared to talk about him, i.e. they never expected him to contend. The entire men's 10 m platform coverage was designed around the story of China going 8-for-8. They had all but given the gold to Zhuo Luxin, with the actual dives a mere formality.
That's ok though. If NBC had chosen to focus on Matthew, I don't know if I could have taken all the cheesy melodrama they would have enacted for his "journey".
Thanks for the dailymotion link netogeno. It's a beautiful compilation of all of Matthew's dives, as well as the medal ceremony and friends & family interaction that probably only Australian tv viewers would normally get to see. His joy when he found out he had won, as he was being hugged, during the ceremony and afterwords was infectious and I found myself grinning ear to ear as well.
I agree somewhat with
I agree somewhat with you. I don't mind the bias when it comes to broadcasting everything American. I watch the Olympics and marvel at the talent from all countries, but I'm rooting for the Americans and wouldn't watch a soccer match between Brazil and Germany or a marathon that featured 3 Ethiopian favorites just for the sake of celebrating the talent of other countries. I watch to root for the American team. While such broadcasting might miss the point of what the original concept of the Olympics was meant to celebrate, I don't think that it misses the point in the current sporting and even social climate. How much coverage do you think that China gave to American athletes? I doubt that the russians tuned in to celebrate Michael Phelps' eight golds. The Olympics have moved beyond a mere celebration of the worlds' greatest talent. They've turned into, first and foremost, a source of national pride and superiority. The Chinese don't hone in on obscure sports nor do they take young children from their parents to train for gymnastics and diving because they want these athletes to be celebrated. They're about the medal count. Ain't nobody I know gonna celebrate or even remember the gold medal winner of table tennis.
I'm not all too proud to be an American right now, so these games were a nice respite from the political and social nightmares we now face. I didn't want to celebrate the Chinese' near sweep of diving golds, even though their showing was impressive and laudable. I wanted to celebrate Michael Phelps' near impossible feat and Dara Torres' unbelievable sacrifice and strength.
I'm more bothered by NBC's bias in their primetime broadcasting. We got a series of fluff pieces from that tall woman with the deep voice, Mary something or other. They swept the murder of the American under the rug like a Katie Hoff fourth place finish. They failed to mention that human right's protesters were escorted off the premises and put on planes back home, nor did they discuss the roughing up of journalists from other countries who didn't want to merely explore Chinese insect cuisine. George Bush wants the Chinese to open up, to see the benefits of democracy, yet NBC cowtowed(sp?) to every biased demand of the Chinese government. Of course, who wants to listen to a moron who waves the American flag backwards to the cameramen.(And if you haven't seen the latest idiotic snafu of Mr Bush, check it out on youtube. Freakin Hilarious.)
Back to the diving thing, I agree that NBC purposefully eschewed coverage of the homosexual and his abomination of a boyfriend. Why would they want to ruin the fairy tale of the games by showing two homos kissing? Afterall, they want to bid on the next Olympics en lieu of the overwhelming success of this year's coverage. Considering that they spent ample time detailing that Chinese diver's last Olympics, her life and even a countdown of her dives to the finale, you'd think that they'd have the decency to cover more fully the man who denied the Chinese a complete sweep of the diving golds. But hey, they only had about 65,000 hours of coverage; I'm sure it was too hard to squeeze the gay in.
There's a gay kid somewhere out there who's a really good diver
He's been thinking of getting into it more seriously but has hesitated because of the homophobia of the sports world.
Then he saw Matthew Mitcham's triumph.
Now he's not going to let anything stop him.