As sports media writers continue their criticism of NBC's
"plausibly live" and story-telling strategy, the network responds
with its audience research and reports of ever-growing ratings.
In Atlanta, Phil Kloer notes, while NBC's numbers are
"irrefutable," there are lots of "knocks" -- including the
ignoring of the "Glitch Games" story. Kloer did responded to
complaints on delayed gymnastics coverage by noting the EBU's
deal to have the women's event live in Europe. Kloer: "Read
this carefully: They cannot show gymnastics live even if they
wanted to" (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 7/25). AP's Hal Bock accuses
NBC of "sitting on" some breaking stories" (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION,
7/25). NEWSDAY's Steve Zipay gives NBC the gold for "viewer-
baiting, secrecy and pummeling by commercials" (NEWSDAY, 7/25).
PHILA. INQUIRER headline, on Tuesday's gymnastics coverage: "NBC
milks drama to wee small hours" (PHILA. INQUIRER, 7/25). The
N.Y. TIMES' Richard Sandomir reports NBC claims "viewers in the
thousands" have told them they do not care if an event is live or
taped. NBC estimates that up to 40% percent of its coverage will
be taped/repackaged (N.Y. TIMES, 7/25). In Baltimore, Milton
Kent notes "the most important reason that NBC can juggle the
competition is that audiences don't care and are eating it up"
(Baltimore SUN, 7/25). In L.A., Larry Stewart: "There are the
Olympic Games, and then the games NBC has been playing" (L.A.
TIMES, 7/24). Tom Hoffarth: "Where does a news story end a
paid-for-drama TV event begin?" (L.A. DAILY NEWS, 7/25). In
S.F., Bruce Adams: "There's something fishy here. Do you smell
it?" (S.F. EXAMINER, 7/25). In Dallas, Barry Horn notes "plenty
of kvetching from federally trained, regulated and licensed
sports television critics" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 7/24). In St.
Pete, Ernest Hooper notes NBC "responds to its critics of its
Olympic Games coverage with numbers. Big numbers" (ST.
PETERSBURG TIMES, 7/25). ABC's Charles Gibson addressed the
issue on "GMA" this morning. The WASHINGTON POST's Christine
Brennan said that NBC playing up Kerri Strug's vault as being for
gold, when it actually wasn't, was "wrong. ... You better get it
right, especially if you have six hours to get work on it"
("GMA," ABC, 7/25).
JINGO GO HOME: The N.Y. TIMES calls NBC's "excessive focus"
on U.S. athletes an "Olympic Low" (N.Y. TIME, 7/25).
FORGOTTEN SPORT: In Baltimore, Ken Rosenthal notes NBC's
lack of prime-time boxing coverage and argues that Antonio Tarver
has a story "every bit as compelling" as Kerri Strug. The
problem is that NBC wants to appeal to female viewers and boxers
are not "all cute and packaged" and "lilly-white" as gymnasts
(Baltimore SUN, 7/25). Tarver asks, "I don't know how people can
say that when they show amateur boxing on television, they lose
75% of the audience when boxing matches are the biggest thing
going on pay-per-view" (William Gildea, WASHINGTON POST, 7/25).
