Luke: NBC edit of women’s gymnastics broadcast not cool

NBC is being accused of spicing up the broadcast of the women’s gymnastics competition by leaving out a critical part to make it appear the contest was a nail-biter. (AP Photo)

Over 7 million viewers watched NBC’s coverage of the U.S.
women’s gymnastics team winning gold for the first time
since 1996. While you’d think that long-awaited win would
be enough of a thrill, NBC apparently thought the actual
drama as it unfolded needed some work.

NBC is being accused of cutting out a critical moment, a
fall by Russian gymnast Ksenia Afanasyeva, that eliminated
any chance the Russians could challenge the U.S. for gold.

“What we learned is that when that happened to that
Russian gymnast, it essentially locked the team gold up
for America and so it took out the drama,” says Luke
Burbank.

What NBC is suspected of doing, Luke explains, is editing
out this very important piece of information to keep
viewers in suspense. The announcers, he says, continued to
bolster the idea that the U.S. gold was still in
contention.

“When they come back from the commercial break, the
announcers are saying ‘Can the U.S. pull this out?'” says
Luke. “The U.S. had already pulled it out by virtue of
that mistake by the Russians.”

While most viewers are OK with the editing and spoilers
involved in NBC’s tape-delayed broadcast, Luke says this
is taking it too far.

“It’s like showing a basketball game and someone hits a
three pointer with a minute left in the game and you don’t
show it because you want people to watch the last minute
thinking it’s anyone’s ball game,” says Luke. “That’s
manipulating the narrative of these things in a way that I
don’t think is appropriate.”

Providing little comfort to Luke, Dave Ross just tells
him, “That’s show business, man.”

“They’re trying to create a compelling narrative,” says
Dave, who transitions to a story of a nip slip in an
Olympic water polo event.

Listen to the full Olympic edit chat:

By JAMIE GRISWOLD, MyNorthwest.com Editor