Slamming Bode.

[icarus]

Completely uncalled for.

I just watched the NBC coverage kicking Bode Miller when he was down.

You don't do that. You don't slam an athelete because he's not winning, you don't say in your wrap-up that he didn't try, and suggest he's a hypocrite.

This isn't done.

So NBC's pissed because Bode blew off the post-ski "How do you feel about losing so badly?" interviews.

So NBC's pissed that they built him up as the story, and hung their ratings on him (and Michelle Kwan). They even had Bode Miller vs. the Herminator cartoons -- assuming that Bodie Miller and Herman Maier would be the big story.

NBC had their heads up their collective asses and were stuck in 2002: Bode's been performing badly all year. Also 1) Bode has always been erratic, 2) Bode has always been a loose cannon who skips inspections and doesn't do what the coaches say, 3) Bode has been out of shape after taking a break, and 4) Bode has an alcohol problem.

Only one thing has changed from 2002: Bode isn't winning.

They didn't do their homework, and now they're mad at him, lashing out inappropriately because their ratings have tanked. But NBC's ratings mostly stink because the Olympics are happening in Italy and there are 10 gazillion ways to hear the results of the games before NBC has a chance to broadcast them. There's no reason to watch when you already know your favorite didn't win, or you're just watching the performance where you know they did.

They'll be fine come 2010 when the games are in Vancouver, Canada, and they can broadcast them live. They're screwed for the summer games.

In the meantime, Bode's obviously miserable. Have some dignity and honor and leave him alone.




ETA: I note that Nike, the biggest advertiser for the Olympics, built their ad campaign around Bode and then had to pull all but one of their spots. NBC lost money because of this.

That's Nike's dumb move, and NBC had to pay. There's no call to take it out on Bode. It's not his responsibility to ask "what happens to your ad campaign if I don't win?"

Comments

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

I have to give a mea culpa here because I was definitely feeling the schadenfreude--not just him, though!--and I think the problem is with jingoistic celebrity-driven coverage, really. (And where there aren't any celebrities per se, a need perceived to create them before the games start--me, I think I'd rather see all those touching profiles done shortly after on whoever did win, American or not.)

I don't see any point in hounding the poor guy, though. And I remember a real low for NBC was in the coverage of the women's snowboard cross, when Lindsey Jacobellis blew the gold and it was all about HER, all those closeup tear-cams and lambasting her and crying crocodile tears for her--and meanwhile a Canadian snowboarder had crashed into the wall and was last seen carried off the slope unconscious, and not a word about her. I found out her fate from a Canadian site. She was basically OK, and obviously for the evening broadcast NBC knew that--I'm sure it would have been a big story had she been seriously injured--but there just seemed to be this blithe assumption that the evening viewers wouldn't care, 'cause she wasn't American and she wasn't the "star."

Hence my trouble sympathizing with celebrities who blow it and lose.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Hell, I didn't even know about the Canadian snowboarder.

I agree with you about jingoistic celebrity-driven coverage, and I think it's doomed to failure. People compete in the Olympics because you don't know who's going to win. So chances are your jingoistic celebrities are going to crash and burn.

I also think NBC is pissed at Bode because Nike withdrew a lot of their ads, since Nike's entire ad campaign was built around Bode. NBC lost lots and lots of money. But again, that's Nike's screw up, not Bode's. You build your entire ad campaign around one person, it's a crap-shoot -- not to mention stupid.

None of this is Bode's fault. Just because he's in the center of the media circle doesn't he's responsible for the hype. I suppose he could say no, but he didn't know what he was letting himself in for.

I guess I feel for Bode because I've been the middle of this sort of thing myself, in fandom. I've had someone rec my stories a lot because that person was a fan and happened to become really important as a story resource (because she was hard-working).

It got really weird for a while. I stopped reviewing stories because people would squee bizarrely that I reviewed their story. It was very uncomfortable to have my review considered more worthwhile than someone else's, especially when it was just a one-liner.

I had someone attempt to use me -- or rather the name 'Icarus' -- to bilk the fandom out of some money, using the fact that they hosted an archive of mine to advertise for more people, and then asking me to ask my f-list for money to help them "keep their archive afloat." When I refused, I got slammed as an "arrogant BNF" who didn't care. Eventually it was all exposed as a scam, but hell.

Then I've been slammed by people that I don't know and have no interaction with. There was an initial phase where I was a new writer and people wanted to encourage me. Then there was this phase where no matter what crap I wrote someone recced it, what I called the "shits gold" period. Now I'm in the phase where it's fashionable to rip my stories.

The only way I could control this process is to not write. But that's what I love to do. So I really feel for Bode. He just loves to ski.

Icarus

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

I kind of like Bode. He has no work ethic whatsoever (as far as I can see) but I admire his "it's all good" attitude. He genuinely likes to ski and that's what matters to him, rather than the win/lose thing. Admirable. (Though he does take it rather to extremes.)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I like Bode.

I don't believe for a second that he doesn't want to win. :) People don't compete when they don't want to win.

I just think he's trying to come up with a way to deal with the rise and fall of his fortunes that's more personal and real than the usual canned PR spin skiers learn to give. It kills me to see him hurting because he doesn't hide what he's feeling -- he's miserable, not a politician which is part of his charm, but they're eating him for lunch.

Icarus

[gyutto.livejournal.com]

Word. Just word. I didn't watch a lot of the skiing this year, but when I saw his interview I had so much empathy for him. They completely discounted the races he *did* finish. I don't see why NBC hits so hard on winning a medal. Why isn't it enough to be 4th, 5th, or even the 10th best skiier in the world? I also think that NBC was bitter about their big stars in general--many of the big "hopefuls" didn't even make it to the finals, and then athletes like Sasha Cohen, Chad Hedrick, and Bode didn't put in such a flamboyant gold-medal laden two weeks as they had hoped for.

I didn't really like the Nike ads either. They seemed kind of like they were sneering at him and giving him a kick when he was down. Plus, from a marketing stance, having your ad guy say "sometimes inspiration just isn't enough" is really not the most encouraging thing. Unless they're going for a subliminal "inspiration is not enough so you need Nike!!" type thing. Basically, the Olympics were covered just like everything else in the news media, and by that I mean "there's no good news like bad news."

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I think Nike had a much more positive "winners" message in the rest of their campaign (I saw a few early on) and they were forced to change their ads to something that fit the situation.

I get a vibe that Nike's trying to blame Bode, but really, the guy who thought they should build a major campaign around one athelete needs a kick in the pants.

Basically, the Olympics were covered just like everything else in the news media, and by that I mean "there's no good news like bad news."

It was ugly and depressing. It's as if NBC saw the ratings share they got in 2002 after the pairs figure skating scandal, and they were hunting for another scandalous story to drive that kind of traffic. They were like vultures around the speed skating issue, moving the soap opera to center stage, overshadowing the sports. They ended up at best sounding petty and mean-spirited. It took a lot of the fun out of the games which in the past were uplifting, inspiring events. I stopped watching at a certain point. This is a first for me.

I also think that NBC was bitter about their big stars in general--many of the big "hopefuls" didn't even make it to the finals, and then athletes like Sasha Cohen, Chad Hedrick, and Bode didn't put in such a flamboyant gold-medal laden two weeks as they had hoped for.

Their spiteful attitude was embarrassing and disgusting. I want ABC to do the Olympics next time.

Icarus

[ella-bane.livejournal.com]

I couldn't agree with you more. NBC's coverage of Bode and expectations had to have placed extraordinary amounts of pressure on the guy. I don't know if the magazine covers and interviews affected him, but clearly, in the first interview I saw with him before the games actually started, he was uncomfortable with the media coverage. At first I was annoyed with all the Bode hype thrown in my face, but as he lost each event I just felt bad for the guy. And now this news you're sharing? They forget he's a human being.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

It's unbelievable. They're actually getting worse. NBC just wound up their recap of the Olympics, congratulating the athletes, etc., and then ended with a catty, "...and we'll note there're no medals for Bode Miller." They didn't mention anyone else so negatively, and that was their closing sentence.

They're treating him abominably.

Icarus

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

But NBC's ratings mostly stink because the Olympics are happening in Italy and there are 10 gazillion ways to hear the results of the games before NBC has a chance to broadcast them.

Yes, I've found it impossible to avoid spoilers in these Olympics. My personal "favorite" way I've found out something I didn't want to know? On Thursday, I came home from work and wanted to know what would be on that evening *besides* the Women's Free Skate, partly because I was having a couple other people over to watch with me. So I went to nbcolympics.com, planning to go straight to their "TV listings" page, and there, on their home page, with a large picture at the top and a giant headline, was a picture of the three women's figure skating medalists. Thanks, NBC, for stupidly spoiling the results of the competition that you're trying desperately to get people to watch. (NB: *On* their website, they give you a different url to use if you don't want to see scores -- I think it's just a direct link to their listings page -- but they don't give you this info on TV; you have to already be at the part of the site that has the results to find it!)

I agree that they have seemed overly negative and/or nasty this year, between Dick Button's whiny figure skating commentary to Lindsay Jacobellis "biggest blunder of all time" to interviews with people who've just lost. I didn't watch much of last night's coverage, and I really didn't see any of the interviews and commentary last night, and now I'm glad I didn't.

As for celebrity-based coverage, that may have peaked during the final of the 5000M short-track relay last night, when near the start of the race, NBC spent *several laps* zoomed in on Apolo Ohno skating casually around the rink, waiting for his next turn to actually race. Every so often you saw the racers zoom by in the background, and if you looked carefully you *might* catch enough to figure out who was winning, but mostly you saw Ohno. Talk about him even when it isn't one of his legs, fine, but don't *not* show the race that he's in (with three other Americans and 16 other people) so that you can show him essentially keeping his legs going!

Normally I'm really, really into the Olympics, and normally I really lke the Winter Games just as much as the Summer Games, but this set has just failed to really get me going. I've watched, but not the way I usually do. It's really pretty disappointing.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I gave up on the relay. I could not tell what was going on in that race.

There have been so many ways to spoil the Olympics. Yahoo News had a headline "Bode Miller Wipes Out!" in their top news stories -- which appear as links in my email. So I checked my email and got spoiled. A friend of mine was watching NBC's late night coverage of the games having carefully avoided spoilers all day -- and NBC opened with a listing of who won what, which was just stupid.

I was cruising along LJ and someone mentioned the results of the speed skating 5000m race. Augh.

Then NBC's nationalistic coverage oftne gave away the ending. When they showed the U.S. women's hockey game out of the blue? Gosh. Who do you think won? Yawn.

I'd stopped caring at a certain point (also, I don't like Sasha Cohen, I saw her cut off another skater deliberately in practice in 2002 - no apology - so I think she's awful). I made no effort to avoid the spoilers for women's figure skating. And wow, was it easy to find out who lost. Finding out who won was another matter. Which just says it all.

Icarus

[telepresence.livejournal.com]

I agree with you mostly, in that I'm not a fan of celebrity driven or excessively nationalistic coverage. On the other hand:

I think...hm. I think the ability to compete at the Olympic level is an honor. For many, many athletes, it takes a staggering amount of sacrifice on their part and the part of the people in their families and communities to be able to get to the Olympics, a lifetime of effort. If you're from a poor country, or a country that isn't naturally amenable to the sport you compete in, or if you're overcomig some handicap (asthma or maybe a body that isn't actually classically suited to your sport), it's even worse. And many, many athletes, no matter how hard they try, won't make it, ever, and their tiny window of opportunity will close, they'll be "too old" or whatever by 25 or some equally heatbreakingly young age.

So enter Bode, who has this rare opportunity, and:

"Also 1) Bode has always been erratic, 2) Bode has always been a loose cannon who skips inspections and doesn't do what the coaches say, 3) Bode has been out of shape after taking a break, and 4) Bode has an alcohol problem."

And part of me thinks, "What a jackass. What a waste. How insulting to all the people out there who are really disciplining themselves and trying their absolute best, or would like to be able to, if they had the chance, but can't, because people like Bode got to go instead, how insulting to the other competitors."

I don't care if Miller wins of loses per se. But I think that if you go to the Olympics, you should be able to walk away saying "I really tried my best. I did everything (within the rules and the boundaries of health and safety obviously) to live up to my potential, and the support I've gotten from teammates, coaches, my family, etc over the years."

I don't really think Bode can say that, and I think that's a legitimate thing to criticise him for.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I don't believe anyone goes to the Olympics and doesn't try their best. I've watched the kinds of mistakes Bode's made -- the first race he was too confident, just didn't get the tuck and aggressiveness that he should have. There, yeah, he didn't try hard enough.

But after that he started pushing it, hard, cutting gates close. He had the one standard Bode Miller wipe-out -- he would have to re-learn how to ski to not have those, because the way he skis is not Skiing Association approved. He wins with that style, he's skied like that his whole life, but he's barely holding onto the slopes with his fingernails. That makes him erratic more than anything else.

Then in his third race he cut a gate too hard, too close, and was disqualified. That's not someone who isn't trying.

*shakes head* After that his mental game was gone. He was rattled, he was avoiding the press, you could see he was no longer racing the clock and the other skiiers -- he was racing those mistakes.

I don't think he didn't try. He was exactly the same in 2002 and blew the snow off the slopes.

What we just saw was a man crumble under the pressure and the hype.

Icarus

(frozen)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Troll.

[harveywallbang.livejournal.com]

yeah... NBC is pretty dumb for that... i may love some of their shows, but then covering the olympics...and being about Bode like that... *shakes head*