Oh, Canada!

The Winter Olympics have arrived, and I'm a little surprised at just how many people are watching. NBC is dominating the ratings race with the Vancouver Olympics. 97 million people tuned into NBC for the first two days of the Vancouver games. That's a 13% increase over four years ago when the Olympics were held in Torino.

I give credit to NBC for putting so much money into new technology to cover the Olympics. The camera angels have never been better, and watching the games in HD is breathtaking (for lack of a better word). But I'm interested to see if the numbers stay up for NBC. Will people keep watching?

I credit the luge tragedy for the increase on Friday and Saturday. People are so interested in what happened during practice on Friday ... that in a sick and twisted way ... I wonder if they are watching to see something similar happen again.

On Friday's evening news (CBS, NBC, ABC) I was a little upset at how each network covered the tragedy. To break it down, CBS loses. They not only repeatedly showed the tragedy again and again, but they slowed it down and also had still images of the aftermath. NBC (who is broadcasting the Olympic games) showed the accident repeatedly, but did not got to the extreme like CBS. ABC wins for their coverage for just being tasteful. They showed the accident once ... and that was it.

It's moments like this that make people hate TV news and question our role in today's society. I am against showing the video of this tragedy. Someone died. I don't think news outlets are getting ahead by showing the video. CBS, whom I respect as a news agency, lost a lot of credibility with me Friday night. They not only showed the tragic accident again and again and again, but they also started their show with a cold open.

Sadly, I can't totally blame the media outlets. They know their audience. As sick as it is, people want to see this video. Just checking out YouTube video postings of the crash, more than 100,000 people have logged on to look. This was just one posting! Nevertheless ... it doesn't make it right.

I've been talking to a lot of my media friends about the coverage. I'm surprised at the differing opinions. Arguments about how it is newsworthy. Arguments about how the media would be wrong to not show the video. I honestly can't pretend to agree with them. It's upsetting at how people tune in to see tragedy. Hopefully this mentality changes...

-daniel