Why is NBC ignoring Usain Bolt?

[democracy1st]

Why is NBC ignoring Usain Bolt?
By Chris Chase

Usain Bolt picked a bad night to run the most electrifying 100 meter race in Olympic history. As Michael Phelps' eighth gold medal dominated television coverage, Internet sites and newspaper headlines in the United States on Saturday night, Bolt's scintillating 9.69 was buried as a second story. Normally the premiere race of every Games, the men's 100 final received scant domestic publicity despite it's historic, thrilling result.

Clearly, the 12-hour time difference played a huge role in the under-coverage of Bolt's feat. While Michael Phelps' races garnered live coverage on NBC (because it was competed in the morning in Beijing), Bolt's wasn't shown until nearly 13 hours after its completion. Even then, it felt like an afterthought to Phelps' eighth gold medal swim.

NBC is said to be worried about post-Phelps ratings for these Olympics, yet they squandered the opportunity to turn Bolt into their second-week star by dumping his race in the outer-reaches of primetime and then giving it no notice on yesterday's broadcast. Bolt's speed, charisma, youth and good looks make him a prime candidate to be the breakout star of these Games. The Peacock Network is more concerned with squeezing every last ounce of coverage out of Michael Phelps though. (Not that I blame them.)

Bolt will have the stage to himself on Wednesday when he runs the 200 and is expected to challenge Michael Johnson's 12-year old world record. Hopefully he'll get the coverage he deserves.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Why-is-NBC-ignoring-Usain-Bolt-?urn=oly,101515

[Blue_In_AK]

1. He really was outstanding,

so much so that he could even pull up at the end. This household was impressed, at least.

[MountainLaurel]

2. It was amazing

He wasn't even running those last meters.

[Mabus]

3. Because one of their advertisers has a commercial featuring Phelps

It's a phone commercial. Usain Bolt doesn't have corporate sponsors. They can't make money on him, so why feature him?

[ColbertWatcher]

7. I kinda feel sorry for Phelps...

...they're really putting a lot on this guy.

I remember when he was arrested and thought that kid is under a lot of pressure.

All this media attention is not good for anybody.

[Mabus]

21. I didn't know he had been arrested.

Thanks for that piece of information.

And you are right, this type of attention isn't good for anyone. I can't imagine what it would be like to be constantly put under the spotlight.

fwiw, I notice that the article was posted in Nov. I miss out on a lot of news between October and March every year. Actually it begins at the end of August. I'm a diehard Kansas Jayhawk fan and I pay more attention to the news of the Phog Phlock than other sports. Football usually starts at the end of August and my basketball team plays through March.

[ColbertWatcher]

23. It happened after the 2004 Athens games.

I remember thinking he's just a 19-year-old kid. He's going to make mistakes.

But of course lots of people gave him shit for it.

[Mabus]

42. 2004 is a blur for me

I missed the Olympics that year because I was a delegate to the convention in Boston and I was all over the place.

I agree with you. Some people expect too much of these kids. They're just kids and every kid makes mistakes. I bet there were a lot of 19 year-olds who made mistakes that year. And with all the pressure he was under I can't say I blame him.

[ColbertWatcher]

51. "...with all the pressure he was under I can't say I blame him."

That was what I was thinking too.

He showed them, though.

[Common Sense Party]

40. Plus the whole ADHD thing. That's an unreal amount of media

circus hype, pressure, and expectations for a young guy who had some learning challenges growing up. And now he's a millionaire. I hope he can keep it all together.

[MrCoffee]

4. That's odd...I saw all of his 100 meter races on NBC

They ignored him real good.

[TahitiNut]

6. Indeed. I saw them more than once ... preliminaries AND final.

Funny about that. :shrug:

[Johonny]

31. shrug

I saw it on NBC. I guess it's the kind of ignoring that's a lot like showing it on TV in front of billions of people.

[aikoaiko]

5. Sounds like the 100 m crew is whining because they weren't in the limelight as much as usual

Bolt got average coverage to other world record holders. Not the most, not the least.

[burythehatchet]

8. What's more remarkable is that he coasted the last 15 meters. He might have

done it in the 9.5's

[Arugula Latte]

16. I know .. That kinda pissed me off.

I mean, COME ON, Usain -- cantcha wait a couple seconds to celebrate?! I want to see your utmost fastest, man!

[JBoy]

18. But it's a brilliant marketing move for Bolt.

Now everyone is talking about "what he could have done".

No doubt he could have shaved some more time off in that race, but by coasting he's teased up his value.

[Dreamer Tatum]

24. That run was absolutely incredible

Take every great 100m runner ever, and put them in a race with Bolt.

Lewis, Greene, Johnson, Hayes, Burrell, Owens...Bolt would have smoked them all, even as he coasted to a finish.

Holy SHIT.

[SidDithers]

9. NBC was showing US vs Spain basketball...

instead of showing the men's 100m final live. The final was being run at 10:45 am ET on a Saturday morning.

Thankfully, CBC carried the race live.

Sid

Edit: oh, and I'm sure it had nothing to do with Tyson Gay flaming out in the semi.

[elehhhhna]

10. Did you know N Coughlin won 6 medals? Swimming? She's one of OURS!

If it ain't Phelps, it ain't worthy. If it's a foreigner, forget it.

They seemed BUMMED when Pixie-Jo or whatever-her-name-is lost gymnastics to ANOTHER AMERICAN!!!

3 Jamaican women won the 100 meter & where's that coverage?

Eff NBC. They SUCK at the Olympics.

When I was growing up we knew the foreign athlete's names, b/c they showed the best of everything, not just the best of the US.

rant over.

[ColbertWatcher]

17. Takes rant baton ...

[kestrel91316]

11. They haven't ignored him. But he's not American.

Heck, they have TOTALLY ignored the equestrian events, where the US WON A GOLD in the team jumping. Go figure.

[Captain Hilts]

12. He's gotten good coverage. What a great name for a sprinter! nt

[panAmerican]

13. Is it because the man's name is 1 letter away from being a politically "dirty" word?

:shrug:

[ColbertWatcher]

14. Because he's black.

And Jamaican, which makes him not American and talk funny.

Oh, and because NBC can't find time or a channel on which to air his 3-minute biographical piece.

Plus, he's inexperienced.

And black.

[Dreamer Tatum]

22. Horseshit

First and foremost, he wasn't ignored at all. The men's 100m is the premier event of the Olympics, and I saw every heat
and the final. A few times. I saw Bolt's picture on every major website I looked at after he won. His sandbagged 9.69
is in many ways more remarkable than any of Phelps' records.

The reason the 100m was downplayed was because the dream field didn't happen: Tyson Gay didn't qualify, and the other
Americans are too obscure to play up. Even had Tyson Gay won, this would have been a "down" Olympics as regards the 100m...there
are simply no outstanding personalities.

ColbertWatcher, you should really study some of the most obvious and well-known history in the history of history before you
post bullshit like "Because he's black." Unless I have it wrong, of course. Unless Carl Lewis is a white man, and the color on every television I've owned since 1984 was inverted. Ditto for Michael Johnson, Maurice Greene, Edwin Moses, and, oh, EVERY OTHER MEDAL WINNING AMERICAN SPRINTER SINCE CHRIST WAS A TADPOLE.

There is also the tiny little issue that Bolt, while an amazing sprinter (WR despite pounding his chest before finishing!!!!!), is a
relative newcomer to the 100m. People haven't had a chance to know him. You can't hang that on Americans outside of Eugene, OR.

[ColbertWatcher]

26. I hate to interrupt your rant, but...

...I believe the OP talked about how the GOP-controlled media were ignoring him.

You may have watched him and can appreciate the nuances of track and field, but that doesn't mean the GOP-controlled media was being fair in their coverage.

If the event is as important or iconic as you say it is (BTW, I think the decathlon is), why so little coverage? Somehow NBC was only able to see fit to cover the final once, not live but on tape-delay, despite all those networks they are using (NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, Oxygen, Telemundo, USA and did I miss any?). The race lasted less than 10 seconds. They couldn't find more than one time slot for it?

I still say when faced with a choice between using airtime to promote the upcoming week of track and field events, the GOP-controlled media (NBC included) decided it would be best to use the clean-cut white boy rather than the black guy.

[Dreamer Tatum]

34. Let's see...a once-in-a-few-generations athlete vs a downer of a 100m...

...hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. If I'm NBC, which do I cover...let's see...


Duh.


Race has nothing to do with it. Nationality MAY have something to do with it. I don't even think the "GOP controlled" bit
had anything to do with it.

NO ONE KNEW BOLT. He wasn't even necessarily the fastest Jamaican in the field. Even if Tyson Gay made it to the
finals, not very many people know of Tyson Gay. Ex ante, the race was low-key. Ex post...wow. And I saw the entire 100m final on the nightly news. I didn't see any of Phelps' entire swims on the nightly news.

If you still want to saw on the racial thing, you're going to have to explain why the Redeem Team is getting so much airtime. My friend, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James went to the stadium to watch Phelps get his 8th gold! Doesn't that tell you something about Phelps' achievement in relation to the 100m this year? When arguably the two most famous athletes in the entire Games went to watch Phelps swim?

If you STILL want to claim racism, then what, were the networks extorted into covering Carl Lewis' every move when he was in line to win merely four golds in one Olympics?


I get your issues with inverse media bias, but in this instance it just doesn't make sense. Phelps won 8 gold medals in one game and became the most decorated Olympian of all time.

And, finally, I don't think you mean to contrast Phelps and Bolt that way. Bolt looks pretty clean-cut, too.

[ColbertWatcher]

50. Your exaggerations aside...

...NBC has how many channels covering this?

Not one of them could have covered Bolt in a little more depth?

No one knows who Bolt is? Gee, I wonder if there is a way to rectify that?

The conscious choice was made by NBC to avoid using any of their many networks to cover track and field with the same intensity that they covered the, shall we say, paler sports.

BTW, Telemundo was playing the soccer games and boxing matches, Oxygen was covering the gymnastics, brought to you by Wal-Mart.

NBC has enough networks covering this, there's no reason they can't cover other events.

[NoGOPZone]

29. You do have it wrong

Jeremy Wariner, a Caucasian from Texas, won two Golds for the US in the last Olympics and may win two more, having already finished first in the heat for his individual event.

Also, Edwin Moses was a hurdler.

[Dreamer Tatum]

35. What in hell do I have wrong?

Edwin Moses didn't run fast around a track while leaping those hurdles? Was my TV THAT broken?

Who said there couldn't be a white guy in there? I was pointing out the insanity of pointing to
racial bias in covering Olympic sprinters.

[NoGOPZone]

38. You can't remember your own posts?

You said "EVERY OTHER MEDAL WINNING AMERICAN SPRINTER SINCE CHRIST WAS A TADPOLE" was African American. I interepreted the capitalization and phrasing as an intention on your part to emphasize something deemed important. Now you want to ask who said there couldn't be a white guy in there?

And if you want to include Moses as a sprinter, I further offer the name Michael Shine to counter your statement. Do you even know who he is?

[Dreamer Tatum]

44. Touche

I did create that exclusive impression.

Still, I struggle with the concept of racism when I can point to Wheaties boxes onto which alleged victims' images have been printed.

[HughMoran]

47. He's Jamaican would have sufficed

You've jumped the shark with the black comment.

[ColbertWatcher]

52. Hey, I'm not the one ignoring him. n/t

[tammywammy]

15. I've seen a lot of coverage about him

The night he ran and then again last night, they showed it repeatedly. :shrug:

[SidDithers]

20. He didn't run at night. He ran in the morning...

His race was at 10:45 am ET on Saturday morning.

You saw coverage of him 12 hours after the rest of the world did.

Sid

[Overseas]

19. NBC Olympic coverage has been really disgusting.

I can't stand the micromanagement of viewing. Them deciding which snippets of the Olympics I shall be allowed to see. Hint-- American must be in top contention.

Even as a non-athletic type I still used to watch a lot more Olympics than I do now. We used to be able to see all the gymnasts, or all the runners, and go to this channel or that to see a full round of particular sports.

The choppy micro-management of viewing has made it really hard for me to watch. Seeing Phelps again and again and snippets of this and that has made it hard to hang in there for the great moments like this one you mentioned.

So sad. I like watching some of these sporting events and the feeling that I'm tuning in with people around the globe in a shared experience.

But maybe there's a special package for elites like John Sidney McCain III who can pay for full time on demand Olympic coverage in each of his 7 homes.

[bullwinkle428]

25. Darrah Torres deserved more coverage than she actually received as well -

HELLO...we're talking about a 41-year-old mom, competing 24 years after her first Olympic experience, and winning three silver medals in the process!!

In the individual race, she lost out on gold by one-hundredth of a second!! Yet that race didn't receive nearly the attention that Phelps' 0.01 second victory received...

If Darrah Torres had been born male, we'd be erecting statues as we speak!!!

[jakem]

28. and spelling her name right!! :wink: (Dara)

[Goblinmonger]

39. You're kidding, right?

How many specials did we see about her. I know what type of rub down she gets as a pre-stretch warm-up for god's sake. They showed all of her heats. Interviews galore. What more do you want?

[MiniMe]

27. NBC tends to ignore non-americans.

[Common Sense Party]

41. Definitely. I don't think it's, as some have speculated, racial bias,

I think it's ethnocentric bias. NBC feels that Americans only want to watch events where Americans do well. That's why we have swimming, women's gymnastics, and beach volleyball ad nauseum in primetime.

Soccer? The most popular sport in the world? I haven't seen two seconds of soccer on NBC in the last week and a half. Why? Because the U.S. sucks at soccer. (Sad, but true.)

[MiniMe]

43. Yes, you have to have cable to watch it.

I think its been on cnbc and some other station. They are showing it, but you have to look for it.

[Common Sense Party]

53. All I have are bunny ears.

On my TV, that is.

But I've watched a few highlights online.

[HughMoran]

49. Olympic coverage throughout my entire life has downplayed non-Americans

...and for obvious reasons.

[jakem]

30. Thread Hijack- in other news... was the Jamaican women's 100m winner not the most charming reaction

you have ever seen?

Shelly-Ann Fraser looked like a 5 year old. Pure joy of sport right there.


Usains reaction was great to see as well, though not quite as humble!

[ColbertWatcher]

32. I'll go with your threadjack!

[jakem]

33. lol.. and when she curled up on the ground and hid her face in the flag!

[Dreamer Tatum]

36. Now THAT is what the Olympics are supposed to mean

Her reaction was absolutely the highlight of the Olympics so far, for me.

[tammywammy]

37. Indeed it was very nice to see

And Jamaica swept the medals in the 100 meter. Very awesome. :)

[ColbertWatcher]

45. Yup...

[fishwax]

56. that was awesome

made me feel younger just watching it :D

[malaise]

46. It's simple

He's not American and did not fit into the jingoistic script. Never mind he's getting lots of coverage everywhere else on the planet.

One more thing - that twelve hour difference is rubbish - the race was run at 9.45am Saturday morning.

Here in Jamaica the word is everyone is 'Shelleybrating'. Shelley Ann lives in a very poor community - her academic skills and her talent on the track gave her opportunities few from that community ever receive.

We have non-stop coverage. TV crews went into the community, interviewed her parents and all the neighbours. Her mom has been on TV several times. What is touching for us is that normally when TV crews go into neighbourhoods like hers, its to show people demonstrating about deplorable living conditions or because someone was shot. This is a very uplifting moment for the Waterhouse community. That's the best part for hubby and me.

add., correct time

[ColbertWatcher]

55. I hope you all look this happy ...

[itsrobert]

48. Phelps = American; Bolt = Jamaican

Understand?????????????????????//

[malaise]

54. True but if you're covering the Olympics you might want to

show the most popular events live and even when your national boys don't win. West Indians in the US have complained bitterly since they did not see the race until the wee hours of Sunday morning.

The fawning corporate media has a simple pattern - it's not news if they don't show it.

[SoCalDem]

57. Just because his names is USAin..does not mean he's NBC-able

The Jingo Olympics is for Patriots only