NBC’s Olympics Coverage: Thumbs Down

Over the course of the past few weeks, NBC’s coverage of the Olympics got progressively worse. It started with a brief highlight reel that showed the winner of a competition getting gold before the event even aired. Fans were upset over the too-early reel, but possibly could have forgiven the situation. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there.

People who’ve been watching the Olympics pretty regularly don’t like the way competitions are filmed and shown later, rather than being aired live and as they happen. Many news sites and other channels talk about gold medals and mishaps quite frequently, so it’s really common to hear about a person winning a competition before it’s actually aired. It ruins the anticipation, and many fans began complaining about the way NBC aired the Olympics.

Then there was the clip.

NBC recently pulled a clip called “Bodies in Motion,” because it was called “creepy,” and it’s been said that the clip objectifies women. It’s a highlight reel that’s supposed to be celebrating female Olympians, but all it ended up doing was showing us clips of butts. Really.

(At this point, Tye leaned over and said, “Well, there’s some breasts in there, too.”)

That comment just about sums it up. At some points in the video, it’s difficult to tell exactly what sport the women are playing, and none of these clips show how hard these women work, or anything representing celebration. It’s like some fourteen-year-old kid spliced together clips of tennis players’ skirts riding up in the wind and of volleyball player’s bikini-clad bottoms.

The music from the clip in question is particularly spectacular. A bluesy/jazzy track plays in the background that sounds like it belongs on a porno. I found myself thinking, “Where are the mustachioed, olive-skinned men?” But there isn’t a man to be seen. Only women.

Fans’ outrage over the clip caused NBC to have it taken down, and the link to the video says it’s been removed and redirects you. People have called it “creepy,” and many people took to Twitter to speak against it. “Wow, @nbc(@nbcolympics), way to take the most talented female athletes in the world & say they’re just sexual objects,” one tweet reads.

So people are definitely becoming more dissatisfied with the way NBC has been covering the Olympics. Will it have long-term effects on the media giant? Who knows? But we do know that they employ horny teenagers to make Olympic newsreels.

Have a great week.