Pity the poor reporters who set off to cover the Beijing Summer Olympics, thinking they were getting a cushy, kick-back assignment, only to find themselves in a tangle of scandals.
Inexplicably, the American public has not turned away in disgust, as evidenced by new stats showing “American Idol”-finale-like audiences tuning in to the early nights’ fare. Total viewership for the Beijing competitions through Tuesday night had reached nearly 170 million — nearly 15 million more than for the Athens Summer Games for the same four nights.
“The glow of NBC’s Olympics coverage ratings victory threatens to be sullied by reports that the Beijing Olympic Committee and the network have been less-than-scrupulous in their presentation of the Summer Games,” sniffed the Hollywood Reporter.
For starters, opening ceremonies organizers have been accused of telling the truth when they said they’d mixed computer-generated fireworks with the real thing for the broadcast.
“Some footage had been produced before the opening ceremony to provide theatrical effect,” Beijing Games executive vice president Wang Wei told the news media.
Preproduced was a series of firework “footprints” seen in an aerial shot leading from Tiananmen Square to the Beijing National Stadium.
When the “footprint” display was being shown to U.S. viewers, NBC’s Matt Lauer told us, “You’re looking at a cinematic device employed by (acclaimed filmmaker and opening ceremonies director) Zhang Yimou here. This is actually almost animation.”
“Do the phrases ‘cinematic device’ and ‘almost animation’ really convey that the image wasn’t real?” scolded the Hollywood Reporter reporter.
Which brings us to our next scandal: the “live” tag on non-East Coast feeds of Games coverage.
NBC is getting hammered for not explaining sufficiently to viewers that, unlike China, their country is not one big happy time zone.
Yes, NBC includes twice-per-hour time stamps that let viewers know the event was live at, say, 11:15 p.m. EDT.
Those cockeyed optimists at NBC believe viewers in, say, Los Angeles will be able to recall enough math to realize that, with their city three hours behind, say, New York, if they’re watching a broadcast that has a time stamp that says “LIVE, 9 p.m. ET” and they see on their watch it’s not 6 p.m. in their living room, they’re probably not watching a live broadcast.
Sadly, NBC’s faith in the country’s command of simple addition is not shared by members of the media.
“That bug in the corner should say ‘Lie,’ ” ranted an Arizona Republic columnist.
