NBC wrong to show luger’s death, but right to disclose footage

As many reading this column have probably heard by now, this year's Winter Olympic Games began with a tragedy.

Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, from the country Georgia, died after his sled crashed into a support beam during a practice round a few hours before the opening ceremony Feb. 12.

NBC's Olympic coverage began with Bob Costas, Matt Lauer and Brian Williams reporting Kumaritashvili's death, showing video footage of the crash.

According to Yahoo Sports blogger Chris Chase, the footage was shown three times during the eight-minute segment on the luger.

Naturally, showing the footage on TV has raised concerns and rightfully so.

In two major ways, NBC was wrong to show the footage.

First of all, the story could have been told without the video.

Most people watching probably know what luge is, and those who do not can probably figure it out from seeing it.

They know people slide down ice at 90 mph, and they know crashing at that speed would be devastating.

Viewers can put a mental picture of a crash together, so a video is not needed to help them understand.

While there are more violent things than luge crashes on the news, they are situations that warrant more visual detail in order for people to understand their importance.

Recently in my literary theory class, we discussed media coverage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Several students expressed disdain they did not even know about the attacks until they came home from school, because their schools kept them from seeing any of the news footage.

At my school, we watched the news all day because the administrators and teachers felt that we needed to know what was going on in a complex event that would change our society.

Winter sports are not complex (at least not to watch), and they will not change our society.

This idea leads into the second major issue regarding NBC's decision – that of taste.

I would guess most people are not comfortable with seeing a person die or with seeing an event that shortly led to one's death.

NBC threw some warnings on screen that viewers may find the footage upsetting, but that might not be enough for people who do not want to see it to avoid it, unless they just don't watch the report altogether.

Plus, the Olympics are promoted as family-friendly, and, barring maybe the occasional bad hockey fight, they are.

NBC had to know there would be children watching (provided the network's promotion of family entertainment worked), which is bound to further upset most adults.

Despite all this, NBC did not completely mishandle the situation.

The network released the footage to other news outlets, "because this was a significant news event," an NBC sports spokesperson said.

Under normal circumstances, NBC does not release Olympic footage to other networks, because it does not want other networks profiting from the event it paid so much to get to cover.

Choosing to do so now suggests NBC's decision to show the footage was not, as many have accused, an act of sensationalism.

I do not know whether the footage of Kumaritashvili's crash was not shown after the initial report of his death, but from what I can find, the video is not on NBC's Web site or on YouTube.

Although, according to a Los Angeles Times article on NBC's decision, it was online the day it happened.

So NBC may not be overdoing it, which shows the network legitimately felt that the video was a necessary part of the story.

There is a high likelihood NBC would have been criticized if it withheld the video from other networks.

People would either say NBC failed to completely cover the story by not making the video available at all, or they would say NBC tried to hang a lampshade over the story in order to draw negative publicity away from its biggest attention-grabber of the year.

I am almost certain that, given America's generally pessimistic attitude toward its media outlets, both of these criticisms would have taken place.

Cynics might say NBC only released the video to other networks to mitigate charges of sensationalism.

But if NBC does, in fact, see Kumaritashvili's death as "a significant news event," then the network recognizes the decision to show the footage is important enough that it is not NBC's decision to make alone.

NBC was in a lose-lose situation.

While it was unnecessary and questionably tasteless to show the footage, the rationale for the opposite opinion is a fair argument that people should consider before making a judgment call on the issue.