Now there's news of yet another fraud at the Beijing Olympics. And we might ask: What did NBC know, and when did it know it?
The Washington Post's Lisa de Moraes has the horrible details in her TV column this morning, under the headline, "Something Else at the Olympics Rings False." Here de Moraes, summing up a story first broken by the Asian Wall Street Journal, with follow up from the Associated Press:
Just when you thought things couldn't possibly get any worse for the scandal-plagued Beijing Summer Olympics Opening Ceremonies, comes word that those cherubic children wearing costumes of China's 56 ethnic groups, who stole our hearts as they carried the repressive totalitarian country's banner to the Scary Goose-Stepping Soldiers who then hoisted it up on the Official Beijing Olympic Games Flag Pole, were not actually members of those ethnic groups.
They were -- are you sitting down?
Actors!
Which is to say, fakes. Frauds. Scams. Lies. And she noted other reports, too:
"Fake fireworks, a fake singer and now fake children at the Olympics opening ceremony," screamed Reuters, joining the latest Olympics scandal cacophony heard 'round the world.
OK, you get the idea. Now here's a question: Where was NBC? And where were all the crusading journalists at CNBC and MSNBC?
Her prose dripping with sarcasm, here's de Moraes again:
NBC's crack journalists had been all over this wardrobe scandal when it occurred during their network's broadcast of the ceremonies:
"All of the children you're going to be seeing tonight -- it's important to the organizers -- are average Chinese children from average families, chosen from some art schools around the area," Matt Lauer told the 34 million or so viewers back home.
"Joshua, what do we make of this now, from the children to the soldiers?" Bob Costas asked NBC's China analyst (and former Time foreign editor) Joshua Cooper Ramo, as the non-ethnic children in ethnic costumes handed the flag to the Scary Goose-Stepping Soldiers.
"I think it's a profound statement that will resonate in the hearts of the more than 1 billion Chinese watching this tonight, the idea that the state is the guarantor of the future of those children in a country that for so long could not guarantee the safety or stability of the society for generations of children," Ramo replied.
Oops.
In other words, the Olympics news coverage of NBC, as well as the news coverage of CNBC and MSNBC, has been fraudulent. Not only have the NBC properties failed to go digging for stories--especially about the crucial issue of China's restive minorities, from Tibet to Xinjiang--they have even ignored relevant stories even when others have reported them.
Not that NBC cares. Jeff Zucker, the big boss, was too busy cheerleading for himself to notice the implications--for NBC, for journalism, for the truth:
So this really is a great watershed moment for network television. It's great for NBC and it's a great moment for our multiscreen -- on air, online, on the go, the digital aspects of these games has been huge.
So nevermind the story of China's police-state tactics against ethnic groups, or the fate of Falun Gong, or the Christians. Just talk about how much money you've made. That's good, Jeff.
You're going to get a helluva bonus.
