Some reporters don't know when to quit

[dreamflower]

Olympic spoilerishness behind the cut. If you are planning to watch last night later on, please skip.

The main interest for me in the Olympics is the figure skating. But since NBC cleverly puts most (but not all) of that at the end of the evening, I end up watching some of the other stuff too (which is what they want, isn't it?) The majority of the time I'm reading or computing or knitting or something, and only look up if the figure skating comes on or something catches my interest.

The slalom skiing just happened to catch my attention, and I watched with curiosity as Bode Miller waited to learn if his early lead would still leave him with a medal. It did--he ended up tied for bronze. (Which in a sport where things are counted down to fractions of seconds seems pretty amazing.)

Then as the reporter (who ignored the gold medalist--because, duh! another country, so why bother?) began to interview him, she kept harping on his brother who died and how was he feeling? Well, how do you EXPECT someone to feel when he has suffered a recent bereavement, and must face a special moment without that person? But she kept on and on and on until she brought him to break down in tears!

I guess she learned her interview technique at the Rita Skeeter School of Journalism. I wonder if she has a "Quick Quill"?

Comments

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

I too thought NBC handled it poorly, to say the least. The reporter asked some exceedingly obvious questions that didn't need to be asked--her questioning was clumsy and awkward and pointless, really. Unless you are truly lacking basic human empathy, we all knew what he was thinking as he looked at the sky, etc etc. No need to prod him on it.

That said... I saw it live earlier in the day, and it was perhaps marginally less painful (emphasis on 'marginally') to watch at that time because, it being live, there was an element of uncertainty, along the lines of "what should we do now??" and "give him time to recover or keep after him??" Unfortunately, they erred massively when choosing to keep after him. (And, even as the reporter is being excoriated in the court of unbridled public opinion known as the Internet, I do have to wonder if she was following the producer's urgings in her earpiece--unless she wants to lose her job, she'll never be able to say and I doubt we'll ever know).

To my mind, replaying it in its entirety when NBC knew the outcome was the far more egregious misstep on NBC's part. I can't help but feel the true fault lies with the producers more than the reporter, clumsy though she was, especially given Bode's very classy response:

http://www.today.com/sochi/bode-miller-nbc-reporter-i-dont-blame-her-all-emotional-2D12124900

I'll take my cue from him and simply hope that NBC learns a lesson from the entire thing.

[dreamflower]

He is certainly very forgiving, and that just shows what a good person he is.

Perhaps she was caught up in the moment of the questions at the time; but I think it would show a bit of class on her part if she apologized, because she did go too far--and as you point out, even if she didn't know it at the time, it was pretty clear later on and certainly by the time *I* saw it! (And you are right about NBC bearing a lot of the blame as well.)

But I wish ABC still had the Olympics and that Jim McKay was still around.

NBC's coverage has always placed too much emphasis on the "human interest" and tends to be pompous and overbearing, and far too sentimental.