On Friday, the Georgian Olympian Nodar Kumaritashvili passed away during his final training round as a luger. A luger is defined as “A person who rides a small sled in a supine position as a recreational sport / hobby and for competition,” according to the Examiner article regarding the tragedy. After the two announcers, Bob Costas and Matt Lauer announced the Kumaritashvili’s tragedy, the coverage was handed over to NBC’s Brian Williams who gave a much lengthier report on the incident. After millions of viewers watched Kumaritashvili’s crash, many questioned whether or not NBC should have broadcasted it. Because of this significant and tragic event, the news organization in fact shared the Olympic footage with other news organizations which they do not usually do. I do not blame NBC for broadcasting the footage. I believe that if people want to see what happened, they will be sure to find a way to get a hold of it. I do believe however, that NBC should have contacted the Olympian’s family to ask for their permission to air the footage. I have already seen different posts on YouTube showing the incident so people could definitely find their own ways to find the accident online. My thoughts and prayers are with Kumaritashvili’s family during this tough time.
I was watching the full coverage of this story on NBC, it was really sad. In the first coverage they actually showed him dying which was really extreme, but then NBC took it down for respect of his family. They have actually been having a lot of problems with that luge course.
That’s so sad. I just watched that story earlier on NBC. From what I watched, I didn’t see them air the actual crash. I may have missed it. I also looked on YouTube for it but all I found were slide shows as opposed to actual footage.
I completely agree with you on NBC getting the permission of Kumaritashvili’s family to air the video. It should have been up to them whether or not it was aired to a national audience.
I read your blog on this story on Sunday when you posted it and I thought I would follow up with my opinion on the news coverage.
I was watching the Olympic coverage on Sunday when NBC did a story on Nodar Kumaritashvili and his family. It is truly a very sad story and the footage of him crashing is very upsetting. In this NBC story they had video of his father and his mother. His mother was unable to speak but his father said that he does not want and will not want to see the video of the crash. At the end of the story Bob Costas said that NBC will no longer show the video of the crash.
The idea of NBC getting permission from Kumaritashvili’s family to air the video reminds me of another story not related to the Olympics or the accident, but I think you might find this very interesting. This story is about the AP posting a photo of a dead U.S. Marine after the family and the U.S. government asked not to publish it. Below are several links to this story.
Original AP Report:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004009395
One Response:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/long-overdue-ap-photo-cap_b_277396.html
I am very torn on this issue but I do think that this issue relates to first amendment rights of reporters. I do not think that the coverage of Nodar Kumaritashvili will cause such a controversy but it is similar to this story and you may find this interesting.
This is so sad. I was watching the coverage all over the news when this first happened. Most of the news coverage actually showed him crashing which i thought was not respectful. They also showed pictures of him being revived by EMT’s which i also thought did not show respect for him or his family. News such as this should not be broadcasting in this form. However, after this accident, the luge course has been modified to the safety of the athletes.