NBC's Barcelona Coverage Fails to Inspire

NBC gets a lot of things right. "Saturday Night Live," for instance. "Late Night With David Letterman." Tom Brokaw.

But somewhere along the line, something went terribly wrong with their Olympic coverage.

Few Americans ever make it to what broadcasters like to call an Olympic "venue." So television programming, for most Americans, is the Olympics. And it's the television programming that has gone bad. Really bad.

For as long as I can remember, the Olympics have been one of the best things television does. People who never watch an hour's worth of sports coverage in four year's time will tune in to the game night after night--I know someone who bought a television set just to watch the 1988 winter Olympics.

Everyone remembers the classic Olympic moments--Nadia Comaneci's perfect 10, the U.S. ice hockey team's victory at Lake Placid, tai Babylonia and Randy Gardiner unable to skate. The Olympics represent the pinnacle of human athletic endeavor: Great talent, hard work, good sportspersonship.

Which is why it is such a disappointment to see this year's truly awful coverage. at first I thought I was just being picky. Then I started hearing complaints from friends, relatives, supermarket clerks--even my dentist.

Network executives have clearly lost touch with the tastes and sensibilities of the American people--or at least with those of us unwilling to shell out $150 for the wonders of Triplecast. I would like to note here, for the bigwigs' benefit, just a few of the things that have been wrong with the network's coverage so far.

Cultural Insensitivity

Sports telejournalism has never been renowned for its sensitivity to non-whites and women. But the Olympics are usually comparatively enlightened in this area.

In the last week, however, NBC has treated us to such gems as the Chinese diver who is the "most Westernized" member of his team--"He smiles a lot, he laughs a lot," marvelleld the commentator.

Earlier, as athletes form Zaire marched proudly onto the field during opening ceremonies, Bob Costas gave a comprehensive description of their nation for American viewers: it was the setting for George Forman and Mohammed Ali's famous "Rumble in the Jungle." Didn't you just know there was something special about Zaire?

And on the gender front, a female swimming commentator's voice filled with horror as she hinted at steroid use by the Chinese team--sounding less concerned by the possible violation of the rules than by the specter of "women with deep voices! masculine women!" Quick, somebody call Steven King!

Dwelling on Bad News

Usually I disagree with the accusation that the media exaggerates bad news and ignores good news. But in this case, I have to go along with the assessment of a deli counter worker at my local supermarket: "It's hard to believe, but it's like they enjoy showing people fall...."

The night Kim Zmeskal stepped out of bounds at the end of a tumbling run, NBC played the clip over and over again--along with her mother's anguished reaction. A couple of days later, when Trent Dimas performed a routine that won him a gold medal, the number of replays was zero.

And don't forget all those personal scandals and early-life traumas to be unearthed and exhibited. What began as a friendly Olympic "Up Close and Personal" focus in the last decade has mutated into a monster. By the end of the women's gymnastics competition, for instance, there must have been at least 10 references to svetlana Boginskaya's "personal tragedy"--her coach's suicide after the 1988 games in Seoul.

The Geraldo Effect

As far as the actual presentation of the games goes, NBC ahs sunk pretty low. Since the day's events are prerecorded and edited together in a predictable manner, viewers can tell who is going to win from which athlete profile clips are shown.

And those profile clips are, without a doubt, the single worst aspect of the 1992 televised Olympic Games. They use a fuzzy, misty effect that brings to mind soap opera flashbacks.

One of the finest of these features swimmer Mike Barrowman sitting (mistily) in a darkened room as he writes in his diary. A voiceover, recounting his quest for vengeance over another swimmer who once defeated him, is interrupted repeatedly by triple replays of his words (of his words, of his words, of his words.)

My personal favorite, though, was one in which an Australian distance swimmer (destined, of course, to take the gold in the 1800m, since NBC was showing his clip) explains why he began to swim.

He describes running into a plate glass window and the leg injury that required him to swim for physical therapy. Meanwhile, the sound of breaking glass is heard as the image of his face shatters into jagged, redtipped pieces. This charming trick is repeated not once but twice more as the swimmer and his parents reminisce about his early training.

The burring question in my mind is: Does NBC really believe anyone likes this stuff? Based on an informal survey conducted in my living room, precisely 0 percent of the American viewing public gives it the thumbs up.

Most people continue to watch it, of course, since their only other choice is to pay for the Triplecast.

Which leads me to the following conspiracy theory: Perhaps the poor coverage is intentional, meant to send the American people fleeing to pay-per-view? Or another possiblility: That every talented producer, scriptwriter, graphic designer, etc. in the industry is working on the Triplecast version of the Olympics, and NBC is making do with the leftovers?

Whatever the reason for this year's flop, we know NBC can do better. And if they don't, a few years from now we may see sportscasters interviewing NBC executives with the smug tones they currently reserve for 14-year-old gymnasts: "So tell us when it all started to go wrong..."

Maggie S. Tucker is managing editor of The Crimson. She wants a shattering glass graphic around her byline.