Olympic Failures in the Media are not Limited to Politics

Heading home tonight after work, I was looking forward to siting down and watching the USA-Canada women's hockey final from the Sochi Winter Olympic Games with my youngest daughter. I've watched prior Olympic women's sports with her two older sisters, and I believe that Olympic sports offer great teaching moments for dads of daughters. I already knew the outcome of the game, as NPR had run a rather extensive story on the game.

So when NBC treated us to a mere 90 seconds of "highlights " with a Bob Costas voice-over, I was more then disappointed. I was sad and angry all at the same time. Perhaps if the US had won we might have seen the match, but I suspect not.

Frankly, watching the women skate to a loss would have offered many more life lesson opportunities to me. And yes, I know NBC isn't in the business of programming just so I can teach my kids stuff. But really - in a day and age where the media routinely creates false equivalence in its political coverage to appear "fair and balanced" it's patently absurd that woman's hockey merited only an afterthought - especially when the men's semi against Canada is slated for prime time coverage tomorrow.

Shame on you NBC - and on us I'd we left this slight to our daughters go unanswered.

UPDATE: Friends have pointed out NBC carried the game live during mid-day programming. That's nice but it actually reinforces my point - today's men's match was run live on NBCs SN network, and it will becrecrunnin prime time tonight. What does that say to our girls and female athletes?