All Blog Posts from Public Eye

There' a pretty important news event in 2008 may prove problematic for the media organizations that will be covering it. No, not that one. Instead, we're talking about the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. As we've mentioned many times before around here, China's restrictions on press freedom are pretty substantial. Months ago, the Associated Press noted that many activists had been squawking about the issue, particularly with regard to how China's restrictions would play out during the Olympics.

The Wall Street Journal today points out that Beijing has agreed to "temporarily relax limits on foreign journalists from Jan. 1, 2007, through Oct. 17, 2008, saying they will be free to roam the country to report on the Olympics 'and related matters.'" But it's unclear where traditional limitations will come into play.

Read full post…

“China's highest court announced rules this week under which officials who give journalists ‘improper’ news will face severe punishment, the official New China News Agency said. Information will be released only through a newly created system of court spokesmen.”

That’s what the Washington Post reported today, in yet another example of the Chinese government exerting control over the media. More interesting was a line came further in the story: “It was unclear how the new rules differed from the old ones, as Chinese courts already refuse to release verdicts and basic information.”

Just this weekend, China announced some other new regulations that would give its state-run news agency, Xinhua, “control over distribution within China of news, information and other services from foreign agencies. Xinhua said it would delete items deemed to violate national unity or social stability,” wrote the Associated Press. Basically, that means more instances of the mysterious disappearance of tank man and the other mysterious disappearance of that Falun Gong protestor that heckled Hu Jintao’s public visit to the White House back in April.

None of this news is particularly surprising, as China has quite a history of clamping down on the press (one that we’ve documented in a slightly obsessive manner.)

What’s interesting, however, is that this slew of developments to manage and control press freedom more closely in China are happening in advance of a major international news event taking place in Beijing – the 2008 Olympics.

Read full post…

There was a big trade in the sports world this week: NFL announcer Al Michaels went from ABC to NBC for a rabbit, some golf and a highlight to be named later.

Michaels will now call Sunday night football games on NBC with John Madden, with whom he previously worked Monday Night Football games on ABC. In exchange, the Walt Disney Company, ABC's owner, secured the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a Walt Disney-created predecessor of Mickey Mouse, as well as Friday coverage of the next four Ryder Cups, which will air on Disney-owned ESPN.

But there's another aspect of the deal that is particularly relevant today: NBC Universal granted ESPN increased usage of Olympic highlights through 2012. I've long wondered how the Olympics highlights broadcast rights get worked out – there are few television experiences more frustrating than being told about a dynamic Olympics performance only to be provided with still pictures, not video, of the event. But that's long what viewers have experienced, at least if they're not watching the right network.

NBC paid a whopping $2.9 billion for exclusive rights to broadcast the next three Olympics – more than $700 million for this year's installment – and the company is not going to simply give its asset away out of a spirit of bonhomie. That's why a three page legal document landed in my inbox a few weeks ago outlining the rules NBC has set forth for showing highlights. The company's legal team, no doubt, will not be shy about enforcing them. Among the, um, highlights of the document:

Other networks must wait until the end of NBC's prime time broadcast in each time zone to use highlights. On most nights the broadcast runs until 11:00 or later.

Highlights can only be used within 24 hours of when they air, and must have appeared on an NBC station. (Thus CBS couldn't air video provided by, say, the family member of an athlete, or a foreign network.) An interesting sidenote from the document: Other networks cannot "broadcast, disseminate or otherwise exploit multiple-exposure still images with a refresh rate designed to simulate the look and feel of video."

Read full post…

When the Italian city of Turin made its Olympic bid, city leaders requested that their city be referred to as "Torino," which is the name Italians use. That's akin to requesting that people speak of "Roma," not Rome, or "Firenze," not Florence. It was initially unclear if English speakers would go along with the request. After all, no one called Athens "Athenai" in 2004. And when's the last time you heard reference to the Shroud of Torino?



But Torinians (hey, we are having fun with names) figured Torino was a more phonetically pleasing name, one with an Italian identity that was more likely to attract visitors. And they convinced the International Olympic Committee, who have made the 2006 Games the first whose official name is not in English. (The official languages of the IOC are English and French.) NBC decided to play ball as well: The network has decided to use Torino in its coverage of the Games. "It rolls off your tongue, sounds so Italian, so romantic," NBC's Dick Ebersol told the Wall Street Journal. "Turin just doesn't do it for me."



He may have a point. The Olympics are about sports, but they're also about money – and marketing. "'Turin'…what's that? A soup bowl?," asks Mike Downey. "Torino does sound much better than Turin," writes Rachel Wilner. And it's not unheard of for Americans to refer to a city the way native speakers do – Bob Wolfley notes Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and São Paulo.



But that didn't stop Downey from generating a top ten list of mock new rules for NBC's on-air personalities. (#2: "…[N]ext time you NBC Sports boys get to St. Louis for a ballgame, say "St. Louie" instead. It's cuter." #5: "By the way, don't say "bobsled" any more. "Toboggan" is a lot funnier.")

Read full post…