NBC Opens Games with Good News Focus

News arose before the Olympic Games really began, and NBC responded perfectly.

As the network's coverage of the Winter Games from Vancouver began Friday night, at a time when officials hoped to hype Canada's relationship with the United States and provide those travelogue features about the host Olympic country, death interrupted.

Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, a men's luge competitor from the republic of Georgia, was killed during a training run Friday when he lost control on the last turn and was tossed outside the icy track. His body ragdolled against a steel support beam and, at nearly 90 mph, the accident was deadly.

With hours to prepare before its network coverage began, NBC covered and reported the story well. There was no way they could avoid the story and did not -- talking to Olympic officials, U.S. luge competitors and many others.

Perhaps most surprising in the nearly 5-minute segment was video of the crash itself. With the network taping everything that happens at the Games, to prepare for when coverage actually begins and to have as sample footage of competitors, NBC had video of the crash and they showed it -- twice, in slow motion.

Some might think that was too much, but in our video-crazed society it was probably expected. Without the footage, it would be difficult to visualize what had happened.

Most striking, and probably unnecessary, though, was a still image of first responders trying to revive Kumaritashvili. The image was not gruesome, but the video was more than enough for the story -- if only because it was not as personal as the photo.

Again, with a U.S. network's broadcast there's little danger of any images catching family and friends by surprise, but NBC certainly tiptoed toward the line of good taste with the still image. That's nitpicking, though, because NBC opened the games at its best covering a difficult and unexpected story.

Really, the weakest part of NBC's first 15 minute on air was Tom Brokaw. The anchor's comments bookended the expected U.S.-Canada relationship story and while the piece provided good perspective Brokaw seemed out of place and unnecessarily trite as the piece ended. Surely, the thin-skinned among jingoistic U.S. fans will take note of Brokaw's closing comments about the strength of Canada's economy.