Timothy Duhon
The Olympics are intended to be an event of world unity in which all nations put aside their differences and come together to compete in a friendly and peaceful manner. This means allowing athletes to compete and citizens to watch these events in a manner that does not inflame tensions, but instead promotes global unity and peace. The current state of NBC’s Olympic coverage is doing nothing to promote that. In fact, their coverage of the Sochi Olympics is probably detrimental to short and long-term global peace.
NBC’s commentators and interviewers seem to be trying their hardest to foster mutual distrust and dislike between the United States and Russia. Bob Costas, in his interview with President Obama before the Olympic opening ceremonies, asked questions that attempted to highlight the difficulties between Russia and the United States in recent years. While this isn’t blatantly anti-Russian, it contributes to the general coverage of these Olympics by NBC that has a very disparaging tone toward the host country.
The far more direct attacks upon Russia came during the opening ceremonies. Announcers Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira filled their commentary with little quips and remarks that were not only inappropriate, but also directly detrimental to public perception of Russia.
In addition to being critical of Vladimir Putin, they expressed sentiments that the version of Russian history presented throughout the opening ceremonies was a romanticized version of the country’s history.
Now, while that may be true, that is to be expected of any opening ceremony. Russia is presenting itself to the world during the Sochi Olympics and it makes sense that they would want to show the best side of the country, and it’s completely inappropriate to criticize them for that. I do not remember the United States highlighting its various injustices that it has committed over the years in its own Olympic ceremonies. I do not remember a criticism about the omission of the enslavement of an entire race of people or the systematic butchering of another as we stole their lands and forced them to move.
If the faults of a country are going to be mentioned during the Olympics then it should be the faults of all countries, not just those to which we are opposed. This coverage of the Olympics seems to forget that the Cold War is over and has been for some time. By focusing upon the negatives of Russian history, it merely biases public sentiment against the Russian people, creating a dislike on principle. This is entirely detrimental to world peace. Peace cannot be achieved when we view Russia as a competitor that we need to beat; it will only be achieved when we view this other culture as one with which we should try to work and blend ideas.
The Olympics are a time when we should attempt to foster that sentiment, a time when we can try to put aside our differences and truly come together to create something great and accomplish things that we could never do individually. However, these petty jabs and insults at the Russian government and the Russian people will never help that happen. It is only when we try to put aside differences that anything truly beneficial will pass.