NBC Sports this week made the not-too-surprising announcement that much of its Beijing Olympics team would be covering next month’s Winter Games from afar, in Stamford, CT, as the Covid pandemic once again disrupts the event.
However, the U.S. has been embroiled in a diplomatic boycott over China’s human rights violations. The network’s coverage of the Games has come under extra scrutiny. On February 4, the opening ceremony telecast was telecast. Mike Tirico hosted from Beijing. Today‘s Savannah Guthrie in the states.
Human rights groups have already called for NBC and the other broadcasters to cancel plans to show the Games. However, while this was never a realistic prospect, network executives announced this week that two China experts will be added to their ranks: Andy Browne (ex-China editor at The NBC). Wall Street JournalBloomberg New Economy is now the editorial director. Jing Tsu is a Yale professor of China Studies and cultural historian.
“Our coverage will provide perspective on China’s place in the world and the geopoliticalin which these Games are being held,”Molly Solomon (president, NBC Olympics Production), spoke in a presentation last Wednesday in which Tirico interviewed her. “But the athletes do remain the centerpiece of our coverage.”
Solomon said to Tirico, that NBC News will be at the location with a China-based bureau. “cover the news in China,”They have also covered issues at the Games in past. “And most recently, we covered Covid and the athlete protests in Tokyo,”She said. Although the news division has not yet announced its plans, its correspondents have been covering the human rights situation over many years.
The U.S. boycott is tied to China’s “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity”Xinjiang’s Uyghur minority population was targeted. 200 human rights groups joined forces to call on media outlets worldwide to cancel broadcast plans last autumn. “All of your companies are at serious risk of being complicit in China’s plan to ‘sport wash’ the severe and worsening human rights abuses and embolden the actions of the Chinese authorities,”They The letter was signed by the author. Mandie McKeown spoke for the group and said they haven’t received any response.
Andrew Zimbalist, economics professor at Smith College and author of several books on the business behind the Olympics, says that NBC is in “an impossible situation”It was difficult to carry a major sporting event in the face of international human rights concerns. He mentioned that the question of who will watch and how much they might pay is an issue. “make goods”If ratings fall below guaranteed advertisers. He said that despite the recent controversies, there is a long-term concern about more companies not signing up as sponsors for the Olympics.
“There is not much [NBC] can do about it, frankly,” Zimbalist said. “… All they can do is try, in a subtle way, without offending the Chinese too much, is to have a few news stories about it. They are between a rock and a hard place.”
If the past is any guide, the opening ceremonies will get the most attention. These are propaganda displays for host countries and in any Games they are a spectacle. In 2008, Beijing hosted the Summer Olympics. The opening ceremonies were celebrated as a highlight. “wow”Display and spectacle like no one else, under the unifying motto of “One World, One Dream.”
Browne wrote the following in A recent column, now Chinese President Xi Jinping “boasts that ‘the East is rising and the West is declining.’ “
“This newfound assertiveness has provoked precisely the response that the 2008 Games were intended to avoid: Pew surveys show views of China are at historic lows both in the West and among China’s Asian neighbors. But now Beijing doesn’t seem to care,”Browne wrote.
Bob Costas, the primetime host of NBC’s Olympics coverage from 1992-2016, has been outspoken on what NBC faces as it goes into the Games. “This is tricky terrain now for NBC and for other Americans. We don’t know what sort of peril anybody might be in if they speak forthrightly,”He said it on CNN last month.
Costas mentioned an example when he hosted Games in 1996 when China was readmitted to the Olympics. When their athletes entered the parade of countries during the opening ceremonies. “I pointed out because it was pertinent to the Olympics: If there is any nation that has the means and motivation to replicate the old Soviet and Eastern bloc sports machine, with everything that implies, you are looking at that nation.”
“Well, the internet was in its early stages, but orchestrated out of Beijing, there was some kind of attempt to get me fired,” Costas said “There were protests outside 30 Rock. They demanded a complete public apology from me in primetime, which was not forthcoming.”
NBCUniversal and the International Olympic Committee have reached a $7.75 Billion deal for the rights to broadcast the Games through 2032. A Ricochet podcast last monthCostas said that it was unlikely that NBC would drop the Games due to the enormous investment and the fact that it is one of few events that cuts across all demographic segments.
Costas acknowledged the existence of a “diplomatic aspect”It is not easy to be an Olympics broadcaster in a host nation, but it is still important to consider international issues. He stated that if he was still hosting, he would be aware of that “you’re not trying to stir the pot. You’ve got friends and colleagues there, and who knows what the Chinese might do to make their lives difficult or uncomfortable. But, as skillfully as I could, I would try to make sure that we did not turn a blind eye to that very large elephant in the room.”
Zimbalist, though, thinks that it is still in China’s interest to avoid public disruption with the IOC’s key broadcast partner. “Both sides know that there needs to be cooperation for this to be pulled off successfully,”He stated.