Will NBCUniversal Be Too Afraid To Discuss The Controversies Surrounding The 2024 Paris Olympic Games?

Steven Spielberg Stars in NBCUniversal’s Opening Film to Welcome Viewers to the Paris Olympics.

NBCUniversal's Olympic coverage has been less than honest in its coverage of controversies associated with past Olympics.

When the Olympics were held in autocratic countries before the commencing of the games, and then when they were on the scene, the Peacock network’s Olympic reporters acted more like the "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil". Japanese monkeys. 

Even when the games were staged in democratic Japan, the controversies about holding the event during the Covid-19 pandemic received little to no coverage by NBC’s Olympic team.

And, of course, criticizing their partner, the International Olympic Committee, has been a “no,no” ever since NBCUniversal coughed up $12 billlion for the U.S. rights to broadcast the games from Russia’s Sochi, Winter Olympics in 2014 to the 2032 Summer Games in Brisbane, Australia.

In particular, the 2014 Sochi and 2020 Summer Game in Japan had as many controversies as the GOP House caucus has in electing a Speaker of the House.

But in order to learn of the controversies a person had to tune in another station or read a print publication.

Perhaps, NBC was fearful for the safety of their Olympic crew if they reported about the protests against the autocratic governments. But they had no fear of doing so in democratic Japan and will have a free mic in Paris.

Thus far, there haven been many controversies surrounding the Paris Games. A few: Allowing Russian and Belarus athletes to compete, threats of strikes, protests against Israel’s participation, and allegations of corruption regarding the games (which is a constant theme each time a new Olympic city host is chosen). 

But none of the controversies were mentioned in a major press release issued by NBCUniversal on May 11, 2023. That was to be expected. Why would an entity mention anything negative that it is promoting in a press release?

It’s also reasonable for NBCUniversal to promote the Paris Games as the biggest happening since Adam met Eve. 

But once the games begin the competition coverage will be televised as a “hard news” story and there are certain to be many new on-site controversies that should be reported on by a news organization like NBCUniversal.

One that has been on-going for well over a year is the IOC’s decision to let Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete.

That is a story that deserves in-depth reporting every time a Russian or Belarus athlete is seen competing.

The question remains: Will NBCUniversal’s reporters on the scene act as “hard news” journalists or PR people for the IOC, as they have in the past? We’ll soon know. But I’m willing to bet a few Euros on the latter.

 The Paris Olympic Games will start on July 26 and run through August 11.