When the Olympic games are in session, it’s a rare time in America. People start talking about mysterious things like “curling,” and suddenly people start chanting “USA! USA! USA!” on a consistent basis.
While this is the essence of the Olympics, some enthusiasts have been disappointed this year. NBC usually presents their coverage of the games during primetime, not live. More than likely they did this because when the games are live, most Americans are at work and school and unable to watch.
While it seems like a smart decision, it sort of doesn’t matter. Other news outlets, such as The New York Times, particularly its Twitter feed, have blasted the results as soon as they are known. People accidentally find out what the results are just by surfing the Internet or reading the banners at the bottom of the TV screen on a news channel.
If anyone was looking forward to finding out if Shaun White was bringing his A-game this year, they probably knew about it before they saw it. Some might blame these organizations for spoiling the show. Why can’t they just keep their mouths shut? I bet you wanted to see White win that gold medal, with some sort of suspense, right?
Well, first of all, if you were unsure about whether or not White had that competition in the bag, you can’t be that big of a fan anyways. But second of all, even for the less predictable competitions, it’s completely justified for news organizations to reveal the results, in all forms. That’s their job.
Think about it, what if no one reported the results in real time? Everyone would be upset and think the media had just gotten lazy. The media should report these things as accurately as possible and in whatever forms they deem necessary.
But just to be fair, maybe a compromise can be reached. People who want to wait and watch the footage should do their best to stay away from these blasts and news organizations can try to not make it impossible to avoid. Maybe they could cut some of the more direct forms, such as Twitter and e-mail alerts.
No matter what though, there is always going to be one news organization that wants to break the story. But when it’s hard to avoid getting a certain piece of news, that’s when journalists should probably take a step back.
Contact the reporter at sheydt@asu.edu
