What was more fun than watching this year’s Summer Olympics? The answer, evidently, was complaining about stateside coverage of the games in London. Criticizing NBC became kind of a social media sporting event in and of itself; with viewers participating in events like the “live-coverage-channel-search” and the “news-broadcast-results-announcement-dodge.” In many people’s estimation, the network broke world records for shameful behavior when it has chosen not to broadcast a portion of the opening ceremony honoring British victims of a terrorist attack and then had one reporter’s Twitter account suspended for posting a publicly available email address.
Don’t expect it to be any different for the Paralympic Games next week, when more than 4,000 people with disabilities representing 166 countries compete in the highest levels of competition. This op-ed on the New Jersey Star-Ledger blog page says that NBC plans to air a few highlight package shows on its channels with additional daily capsules on YouTube, but no live or tape-delayed coverage of any of the 503 events is scheduled to take place.
The op-ed writer, Tony Pauls, is the father of Josh Pauls, who was part the USA Sled Hockey team that brought home the gold medal during the 2010 Paralympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia. Pauls says that Great Britain, China, Brazil, and Australia are among the countries committed to live coverage of the games, and the U.S. is disrespecting the efforts of people with disabilities by not doing the same. He writes:
Why is it that NBC will treat these athletes like — and I hate to say it — second-rate athletes? Give them a chance. NBC spends so much time and effort covering Phelps, the NBA Olympic team and other athletes because they are or can become household names. Networks find stories that make you cry. Well, follow these phenomenal athletes and learn what they had to endure to be where they are, and you would be surprised.
Fortunately, there will be a viewing option for those who enjoy the human interest segments of athletic coverage during the 2012 Paralympics. John Robinson, the founder of the website OurAbility.com, will be attending the games along with photographer Anthony Tassarotti with the intention of telling as many stories as possible during his six-day sojourn.
The content of OurAbility.com is largely focused on providing resources that facilitate employment for people with disabilities, but, as Robinson tells Paul Grondahl of the Albany Times-Union, the Paralympic games are right in line with his site’s mission to help its users develop their potential:
Robinson and Tassarotti will profile athletes and other people at the Paralympic Games, but the focus will be on the triumph of the human spirit rather than the specifics of their disabilities. ‘We’re not a reality TV show,’ Robinson said. ‘There’s a fine line between promotion and exploitation. We want viewers to see the person behind the disability and to realize this is not a joke.’
Still, it’s too bad there will be no televised coverage of the actual events here in America. Despite all the backlash, ratings for the Olympic games were strong. Meg James of the Los Angeles Times was one of several reporters to note early in the coverage that NBC projected breaking even on its $1.18 billion investment after originally anticipating a $200 million loss.
Yesterday, the London Telegraph published an article under the headline “British public more excited about Paralympics than the Olympics, new poll reveals.” With American with disabilities representing $1 trillion in discretionary income, NBC is missing out on the chance to capitalize on similar momentum here at home, as well as share stories about what makes life matter for us all.
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Image by Elliot Brown.