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Loading ...NBC on not mentioning Mitcham is gay: “We can’t cover everything”
NBC also spared plenty of airtime for much smaller stories: the love triangle involving French and Italian swimmers, the volleyball player who lost her wedding ring, and countless shots of husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends all cheering on their loved ones. Especially compelling were shots of weeping, smiling and giddy athletes greeting their families after receiving their medals.
All which was true of Matthew Mitcham.
Additionally, the network frequently covered events involving upsets or controversial victories, especially those concerning the United States and Olympic hosts China: the Japanese upsetting the U.S for the gold medal in softball, the U.S victory over Serbia in Men’s waterpolo, the controversy surrounding the Chinese women gymnastics team .However , Mitcham’s shocking derailment of the Chinese diving juggernaut didn’t quite rate.
Hughes is correct in that NBC didn’t tell the personal story of every single athlete. And it’s also true that NBC’s coverage focused more on American athletes. Despite that American-centric coverage, however, NBC’s hours and hours of coverage found room for other significant Olympic moments belonging to non-Americans: Usain Bolt’s world records, Rafael Nadal’s expected gold medal in tennis, as well as Zhou Luxim, the man Mitcham defeated for gold.
NBC sports is a news organization and reporting historical, groundbreaking moments is their job. Had Mitcham actually been the first black diver competing, and had he pulled off the same stunning achievement, NBC’s ignoring it would be considered a travesty at best. Questions would be raised as to either their skills as journalists — or as to whether they are biased.
So why didn’t NBC cover Mitcham’s story? Was NBC unaware that Mitcham was these games only out male athlete? Given NBC’s boasts about their thorough coverage, not knowing this about Mitcham would reflect poorly on the Peacock network’s reporting skills.
Or perhaps gay athletes are so common that even a victory as stunning as Mitcham’s isn’t newsworthy? That is absurd, or course.
Was Mitcham’s win simply not that noteworthy? Given that he single-handedly kept the Chinese from winning every men’s diving gold medal, that explanation is highly unlikely.
Or did Mitcham’s sexual orientation play a part in the lack of coverage? It certainly seems a strong possibility.
What Mitcham did is the single most notable achievement by an out gay male athlete at the Olympics and it was done in dramatic, compelling fashion. And he did it with a personal story that is unarguably at least as compelling as love triangles and lost weddings.
Unless you’re the Peacock Network, that is.
The fact of the matter is that NBC blew it. The only real question is why.
UPDATE: NBC issued an apology for “this uninentional omission.”
THIS network always passes by REAL LIFE gay content and reality series. PLEASE we had to sit thru mistys husband, kerrys husband, even their dang wedding bands……. This to me is very homophobic. I had to hear about which runner was married to who….. VERY insulting of nbc.
I am going against the grain according to the comments posted. My man and I watched just about all of the coverage both during the day and “Live” in the evening. We have long enjoyed the games and look forward to them every 4 years. We were able to watch during the day because Phil is currently a victim of our great economics and I am a disabled man on SSI and medicaid. I have only one leg and am confined to home. For me to watch these talented kids of all nations makes me proud of them. I don’t care if they are gay or whatever.
These kids are so athletically gifted and to me they deserve only our true support and affectiion. As for NBC’s lack of informing all viewers about Matthew, what point would it make other than to start tongues wagging. Iwish we did live in a world where it wouldn’t matter, but we all know the truth. I am disappointed though. Bob Costas has always appeared to be a very nice man and I’m sure he could have had a few nice things to say about gay athletes. He was probably only following a script written for and approved by the executives of NBC. Unless pressed on the issue by the media’s we’ll not hear an answer to this question. Phil and I look forward to the games in Vancouver and London with baited breath. Take care all and Peace. That’s what Olympics are for, respectful and friendly competition among all people.
Trace is pretty close to the mark as far as I’m concerned. NBC has amazing coverage given the scope of the games. Of course, only a small part could be shown on prime time network tv, and most of that focused on the sports that American prime time audiences want to watch – particularly sports where US athletes were expected to medal. There was a whole lot of other stuff, but you had to check the website or watch the secondary channels at off hours.
In the coverage of the 10m diving finals, the focus was on the two Americans’ hopes for a medal plus the Chinese quest for a sweep. Matt Mitcham was in the mix, but never the focus until the very last two dives in the sixth and final round of dives. At that point, everyone was astonished at the virtuosity of Matt’s performance (for which the commentators gave him full credit), incredulous that the Chinese had failed to sweep, and moved by Matt’s heartfelt emotional response.
Do I wish that they had mentioned that this extraordinary, talented, gorgeous young champion is gay, if only by showing a quick shot of his partner Lachlan in the stands and mentioning the value of their relationship to Matt? Absolutely, unequivocally YES. Do I think that the failure to do so was homophobic, mean spirited or even grossly negligent? No. The guy is not American, he was not expected to win the gold (if any medal at all). There is really no reason the NBC staff would have prepared a feature about him or scouted out his family and prepped the camera operators to locate them.
The whole controversy seems to me to be a function of our narrow American focus on American sports and American and a certain self-absorption in the gay community.
That said, I’m now a devoted Matthew Mitcham fan. I say celebrate the guy’s extraordinary triumph – watch the video clips on Outsports, but also go to the NBC Olympic website, click on ‘Diving,’ and check out the videos. There’s hi-quality coverage of the 10m finals (including the dives of a couple of US divers who are also worth watching!) and also the medal ceremony (with many minutes of MM’s beaming smile, as well as his climb into the stands to kiss his mother and Lachlan). I get tears, chills and an incredible high every time I watch.
For the most part NBC did a decent job in their Olympics coverage but I was far from being impressed. Living in L.A. my blood boiled every time they mentioned that an event was “Live”. It’s a downright lie. Except for the basketball gold medal game, the “Live” events were 3 hours old. Another obvious lie that the article pointed was that they “don’t discuss an athlete’s sexual orientation”. They flaunted the heterosexual athletes’ orientation at every chance they had. Makes you wonder what other lies they may have told.
NBC commentators also failed to correctly pronounce Beijing, by saying bay “zhing” rather than “jing” as pointed out by PBS commentators. Matthew truly has a compelling, historic, and newsworthy personal story. Congratulations Matthew! Shame on NBC for totally ignoring it.
We know that everything is filtered/focused through the heterosexual dominant paradigm; this is not surprising. I don’t think they are homophobic as much as they don’t want to offend their diverse constituencies/markets in the wider sports arena; the pocketbook trumps all other considerations.
I agree that NBC had poor coverage over all. In my opinion there were too many hours upon hours of commentators and covering ’sports’ such as power walking/running, and other such nonsense sports (just my opinion)… however there were many, many profiles of non-gay athletes that were played over and over again.
Just goes to show you we have a long ways to go in the fight for equality.
I wonder if NBC would have said anything if he won for the USA?
Anyway, congrats to the cutie Mitcham.
I suspect that NBC was quite aware of Mitcham’s story. However, publicizing his sexual orientation (or even portraying it neutrally/naturally) upon his upset victory would have caused a grave “loss of face” to NBC’s hosts.
That’s BS Trace. NBC coverage was adequate at best. How much of the “Field” events in Track and Field were you able to actually view? What was televised? High Jump? Broad Jump? Pole Vault? We got updates of who won medals in 3 minute segments. Pathetic. Of course NBC DID devote a whole channel to that paragon of summer olympics…boxing.
wasn’t that special? Even the great matches were hardly seen. How many times did they begin coverage of an event halfway through a match?
Finally, YES, it is pathetic that NBC is so scared of the gay question that they wouldn’t even mention it on air. NBC, see ya…wouldn’t wanna be ya.
I have read this story with obvious disappointment towards NBC, and unfortunately I cannot buy NBC’s lame excuse for their obvious slap in the face to the Gay Community. I also agree, shamefully, with Bruce’s comment that no attention was paid either by our own CBC in Canada to this incredible man’s story. It seems however that they can flaunt some love triangle or some gal losing her wedding ring, as if we don’t get enough of that on daily TV or Jerry Springer, but when it comes down to a real human interest story such as this, it is conveniently looked over. This man faced incredible odds to get to the Olympics in the first place – he almost dropped out completely were it not for the encouragement of his coach – he basically had one year to train in addition to doing whatever he could to get his mom and partner to the games – and for NBC and CBC this is not good enough. Give me a break, guys, this is out and out discrimination no matter how you try and colour it. This is not your typical “soap opera heterosexual type story” so it just does not rate. Matthew Mitcham deserves his place, for you to turn your back on his achievements, you have turned your back on a very important segment of your viewers.
No, Trace, what is truly unfortunate, is that, after the fact, instead of an “Oops — that was an interesting story–sorry we missed it,” the response is the ridiculous denial that they don’t cover athlete’s sexuality. Athlete’s sexuality was rampant in their coverage as long as it was hetero. I can understand that in such a huge undertaking smaller news-stories like this could be missed, but to excuse it like this exposes the total lack of perspective of NBC Sports and stinks of homophobia. Mitcham deserves our congratulations and he also deserves his privacy, but his ability to be so casual about exposing his sexuality was fought for and won by the many who struggled before him. The community deserves a part in the victory as well. For NBC Sports to miss that perspective is shameful.
Trace, it’s simple, NBC covered the spouses and family other other athletes, and yet they failed to do the same thing to a gold metal winner. There’s a problem in that whether you like to believe it or not.
NBC did a very good job with it’s coverage.
It boggles my mind that anyone could find any fault in such a massive undertaking.
It’s unfortunate that some are trying to politicize such a wonderful accomplishment. I’ve said it before, Congratulations Matthew!
Unfortunately NBC wasn’t the only network that didn’t provide any such back ground on this diver’s amazing achievement. I watched most of CBC’s Olympic coverage and they totally missed this story as well, which was quite surprising.Kudos to Matthew Mitcham for such a stunning achievement!