How to get around the NBC video embargo? Stage your own puppet race.
NBC paid a LOT of money ($1 billion) to televise the London Summer Olympics and the network is offering coverage of everything, so we can understand why they wouldn’t want to share video of the biggest events on TV until primetime. We don’t always agree, but we understand.
That’s not a view shared by everyone, as the popular Twitter hashtag #NBCFail would suggest. That’s the hashtag used by thousands upon thousands in the Twitterverse to complain about NBC delaying the TV airing (you can stream it live online) of events such as Missy Franklin’s gold medal performance in the 100-meter backstroke. (Meet the man who used it first.)
The complaints have reached the point where Guy Adams, a reporter for The Independent in London, had his Twitter account suspended after publishing the corporate e-mail address of NBC’s Gary Zenkel, who oversees Olympics coverage, and encouraging people to send him complaints. (Here’s an entertaining story by Adams about efforts to reinstate the account.
UPDATE: Twitter has reinstated Zenkel’s account and apologized. More.
One way around video embargoes? Do your own with stick puppets, which is what the Wall Street Journal did on Monday to illustrate Franklin’s victory. (Watch the funny video.)
Here’s another interesting question: Should Missy go pro? The money will be huge, but it will mean she can’t swim her senior year in high school or in college. Is all that money (it will be a lot) worth giving up that experience? What would you do? See how the Wall Street Journal analyzed the situation.
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