Who else is disgusted w/ NBC's coverage of Women's Gymnastics?

Question

It first began as objective, unbiased coverage typical of the normal integrity of American journalism.

As competition b/w the U.S. and Chinese teams heated up, and all the judging and age controversies began to spread, it feels as if NBC has fueled the xenophobic fire by creating a circus of this event.

NBC's coverage of the uneven bars was absolutely atrocious and a total and complete disservice to the integrity of American journalism. The commentators were yelling, proclaiming to the heavens how Nastia got screwed, spending enormous energy on criticizing the performance of He (which did have its faults despite ambition of the routine) while completely neglecting the fact that Yiling's (Bronze) performance was just as good, if not identical to Nastia's and should have been right there for gold medal contention, a fact that the commentator's completely glossed over!

If anyone got screwed, it was Yiling. Your thoughts?

Answer 1

That's the typical American media, isn't it?

Answer 2

I don't care what ANYONE says.  China is BLATANTLY cheating, so there is every right to get mad.  You can even see it in the U.S. gymnasts faces that they are even pissed.  The entire time they were deciding the BS tiebreaker with He and Nastia, Nastia looked like she wanted to kill someone.

Personally, I think, if there happens to be a tie, there needs to be two medals awarded (in this case gold).  If athletes perform to the exact same caliber then why shouldn't they be awarded the very same prize?  I must say, I feel that taking it to the .001 of a point was a little ridiculous.  Nastia's performance was much tighter than He's.  And hands down, she had less visible mistakes.

I feel bad for the U.S. girls, especially.  They are taking away points that shouldn't be deducted (or at least too many), and awarding the Chinese with ridiculously high scores.  And that's all regardless of the age issue.  I do feel if it can be proven then the underaged girls should be stripped of their medals; however, it probably won't be pursued.

Because China is cheating we have every right to be upset- ESPECIALLY the competing athletes!

Lastly, they need to rethink the point system here.  It is obviously unfair.  The whole routine should not be decided on the start value, which seems to hold the most weight when it comes to the total.

Just for the record- I do believe that Yiling did a great job, and I do believe she should have had a higher score.

Answer 3

nastia should of got gold, yiling silver  

Answer 4

I agree with everyone who says China is cheating.  They've got an unfair advantage since they are fielding a team of 10 year olds!!!

As for Nastia - she shouldve won gold!  Yiling got bronze, didn't you see the results.  It isnt a question of her.  You can't include Yiling in the picture since the judges gave her a lower score.  It is between Nastia and that other Chinese, the one who cheated with gold.  Only those two.  What was wrong was that Nastia shouldve gotten a higher score than that gold medal Chinese girl.  So Nastia should get the gold.

I'm tired of people trying to defend to defend the non-American cheaters.  If you are American - you are unpatriotic.  US shouldve won gold.  Go USA!!!

Answer 5

Well said.

Totally agree.

Comments were completely inappropriate and utterly disgusting. Insisting Nastia's routine was so much more flawless and smooth and beautiful. Ridiculous really. Bias at its best.

I hope the NBC commentators sleep happy, knowing they have spawned anti-Chinese and xenophobic sentiments across America, if this Yahoo Answers isn't proof enough.

Answer 6

I totally agree!

Even Nastia thought Yilin was cheated, but do we hear anything from commentators about that? NOO

An NBC commentator suggested that Yilin can topple He kexin and Nastia Liukin, especially with her clean dismount, but when her score came out, did he say anything about that? nooo...

It was more like okay, yay...let's go back to defend nastia again.

Answer 7

If there was bias in the judging, I'd say it was not biased in favor of the Chinese, but rather biased against the Americans. (There was also a Korean and a Romanian gold medalist in gymnastics.)  I kind of wonder if the judges heard the accusations of incompetency made by NBC, and decided to punish (unfairly) the American women gymnasts.

I watch a lot of sports. It seems when athletes argue with the umpires and referees, they just get penalized more. These judges are human afterall. Of course they'd be pissed when NBC commentators call them incompetent. And if that's what happened, it would be so wrong to take it out on the athletes!

Answer 8

i couldnt believe how bad the usa gymnastics team suked on the first day! i couldnt belive nastia fell... on uneven bar dismount!

so pissed i missed the rest :C

Answer 9

Yes, I agree.  It amazes me to see how much bias the fans have - always arguing for their athletes instead of looking at things objectively.  Maybe, it begins with the media.  Certainly, they are setting an awful example.

Has there been bad judging in the competition these past few days - absolutely.  Have gymnasts gotten cheated by this - definitely.  But, in this case, it was not Nastia who deserved the gold.

Anyone who is arguing about the anti-American bias of the judges, please go back and watch the tape of the three medalists performances.  Just as any good investigator or jury would do - focus on the comments at the time of each performance, not several minutes afterwards.  In the case of the two tied for first - the commentators pointed out one minor and one major error for each.  For Yang Yiling, the only pointed out one minor error.

Yang Yiling is the one who really should have the complaint.  She was the one, if any, cheated out of gold.  And yet, she was the one with the biggest smile after the competition was over.

Let that be a lesson to us all.

Answer 10

I just watched the coverage a little while ago, and I find the statement that "The commentators were yelling, proclaiming to the heavens how Nastia got screwed, spending enormous energy on criticizing the performance of He" to be WAAAAAAY off the mark.  Yes, the commentators were expressing their opinion (that's what commentators do) that the judging was suspect, but they were certainly not yelling or being outrageous.  The way the gold was decided was ludicrous to say the least.  In a sport that is as subjective as gymnastics is to begin with, having a tie breaker decide the winner when both athletes received the same score is just stupid.  

Answer 11

I completely agree with you. I was so DISGUSTED watching the NBC coverage of this event. It made me sick to my stomach. NBC is really biased with what sport they show of the Olympic games also!

Answer 12

What was also appalling and immature was how the commentators were hyperventilating about the tiebreaker system, how it was so convoluted, unfair, mysterious, blah blah blah. THE RULES WERE THE RULES. These commentators were supposed to be the educated ones. They were hired to provide expert commentary and should have been prepared and known the rules; that's why they got hired! Not to mutter and say, "the gold medal is [unfairly] awarded through a "complex" computer program" which we don't understand; we gotta get back to you. It's NOT a complex, arbitrary black box. It is in the EXACT SAME SPIRIT as how the scores are determined in the first place: you eliminate two outliers to get anyone's score; the tiebreaker simply eliminates a third outlier. How is that mysterious??? What's more, a tiebreaker could certainly happen, and I can't believe the commentators were as unprepared as they were.

What's funny is if it went the other way and Nastia came out on top as a result of the tiebreaker, would we have seen the same sort of hysterics? (It even continues as I'm watching NBC the day after: they just mentioned it again and described it as a "crazy" thing.) In fact, it happened later the same night in one of the men's event. Funny how NBC had nothing to say there (because no American was in contention).

This really called into question NBC's/the commentator's credibility and objectivity on all matters. It actually gives me more faith in the (imperfect) judges than the commentators. I mean, if they're going to twist even what the simple tiebreaker rules are, how can I trust they're not trying to twist what is more subjective?