NBC: WE CAN'T COVER EVERYTHING

Burnt out and struggling with depression and anxiety, an up-and-coming Olympic hopeful drops out of his sport two years before the Beijing Games. His coach talks him into resuming training the year before the Olympics and he makes his country’s team which isn’t expected to fare terribly well against China’s powerhouse squad.

Indeed, the athlete performs poorly in his first event, failing to even make the semifinals. In his final event, however, and on his final attempt, he wins in an upset that not only denies China the gold medal, but by winning prevents a gold medal sweep by China in all eight of that sports events.

Now add to that the fact that the athlete also happens to have come out as gay less than six months earlier and is the only out gay male athlete at the games. As If that isn’t significant enough, his victory is easily the highest profile win ever by a gay man in an Olympic event. Both his mother and partner are in the stands to witness his triumph, something they almost didn’t get to do until a grant from Johnson & Johnson financed their trip to Beijing.

Finally, after receiving his gold medal, he climbs into the stands ala tennis’ Patrick Rafter to kiss and hug his partner.

One couldn't write a better script. Surely, that is an Olympic story that must be told, right? Not according to NBC.

The athlete in question is, of course, Australia’s Matthew Mitcham who snagged the gold medal in the Men’s 10 Platform Diving and did so on his final dive by posting the highest score ever given to a single dive during Olympic competition.


Curious why Matthew’s award ceremony and story weren’t gripping enough to make the NBC telecast (the medal ceremony was shown on their website) AfterElton.com spoke with Greg Hughes a spokesman for NBC Sports.

While the issue has been addressed and debated by various blogs and writers, until we contacted NBC they were unaware of the controversy. “I’m not aware of any controversy,” said Hughes. “Yours is the first call.”

When asked why at no point during the coverage did NBC mention Mitcham was gay or that his partner was in the stands, Hughes said, “In virtually every case, we don’t discuss an athlete’s sexual orientation.”

When it was pointed out that in fact the network does exactly that by telling viewers about Olympic athletes’ various spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends, and even in one case a heterosexual “love triangle” Hughes responded, “Not in every case. Not every athlete has a personal discussion. I could show you 500 athletes we didn't show. We don't show everyone. We don’t show every ceremony.”

But surely, taking into account Mticham’s stunning come-from-behind victory, the historical significance of his achievement as a gay man, and his own personal history, it seems unlikely the vast majority of those other athletes truly have as compelling a story as Mitcham. Said Hughes, “How do you know that? How do you know that someone on the rowing team doesn’t have as compelling a story?”


Pressed that it was hard to believe that there truly any other athletes with stories as compelling as Matthew’s, especially ones who single-handedly prevented the Chinese from sweeping all of the gold medals in an entire sport, Hughes would only say, “It's not possible to cover the entire personal story of every athlete regarding their performance. … It’s just not possible to single out coverage. “

After that, Hughes offered no further comment.

Anyone watching NBC’s coverage of the Beijing Olympics is aware how much time the network devoted to many athlete’s personal stories: Michael Phelp’s record setting eight Olympic gold medals and his relationship with his mother, Usain Bolt’s gold medals and world records, and even Sanya Richard’s relationship with her fiancée who plays for the New York Giants.


NBC also spared plenty of airtime for much smaller stories: the love triangle involving French and Italian swimmers, the volleyball player who lost her wedding ring, and countless shots of husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends all cheering on their loved ones. Especially compelling were shots of weeping, smiling and giddy athlete’s greeting their families after receiving their medals.

All which was true of Matthew Mitcham.


Additionally, the network frequently covered events involving upsets or controversial victories, especially those concerning the United States and Olympic hosts China: the Japanese upsetting the U.S for the gold medal in softball, the U.S victory over Serbia in Men's waterpolo, the controversy surrounding the Chinese women gymnastics team .However , Mitcham’s shocking derailment of the Chinese diving juggernaut didn’t quite rate.

Hughes is correct in that NBC didn’t tell the personal story of every single athlete. And it’s also true that NBC’s coverage focused more on American athletes. Despite that American-centric coverage, however, NBC’s hours and hours of coverage found room for other significant Olympic moments belonging to non-Americans: Usain Bolt’s world records, Rafael Nadal’s expected gold medal in tennis, as well as Zhou Luxim, the man Mitcham defeated for gold.


NBC sports is a news organization and reporting historical, groundbreaking moments is their job. Had Mitcham actually been the first black diver competing, and had he pulled off the same stunning achievement, NBC’s ignoring it would be considered a travesty at best. Questions would be raised as to either their skills as journalists -- or as to whether they are biased.

So why didn’t NBC cover Mitcham’s story? Was NBC unaware that Mitcham was these games only out male athlete? Given NBC’s boasts about their thorough coverage, not knowing this about Mitcham would reflect poorly on the Peacock network’s reporting skills.

Or perhaps gay athletes are so common that even a victory as stunning as Mitcham’s isn’t newsworthy? That is absurd, or course.

Was Mitcham’s win simply not that noteworthy? Given that he single-handedly kept the Chinese from winning every men’s diving gold medal, that explanation is highly unlikely.

Or did Mitcham’s sexual orientation play a part in the lack of coverage? It certainly seems a strong possibility.

What Mitcham did is the single most notable achievement by an out gay male athlete at the Olympics and it was done in dramatic, compelling fashion. And he did it with a personal story that is unarguably at least as compelling as love triangles and lost weddings.

Unless you’re the Peacock Network, that is.

The fact of the matter is that NBC blew it. The only real question is why.





[after elton]





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