China’s Opening Ceremony Taunted the World. What Is NBC Going to Do About It?

As NBC's telecast of the 2022 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing got underway on Friday, Savannah Guthrie wasted little time calling out the elephant in the room. There is almost no way that NBC will get the Beijing Olympics "Right," because the network is working from competing imperatives. As a news network, NBC is obliged to cover the human rights situation in China, and to not avoid the story just because it might complicate its coverage of the Olympics. The story of the Uyghur genocide certainly does complicate its coverage of the Olympics, insofar as it prompts people of conscience to ask why the Olympics are happening at all in a nation that is currently pursuing such repressive policies. It's a no-win situation for NBC, and the question executives have surely been asking themselves is this: What is the least worst way for the network to lose? Its early coverage of the opening ceremony might offer a clue: My gut tells me that NBC will cleave to objectivity and treat China's human rights issues as a story that has two sides. Xi's point, as far as I understand it, is that the Uyghur genocide isn't a genocide at all, that China has done nothing to be ashamed of, and that anyone who thinks differently can go suck eggs. "China wants to send a message about itself in this opening ceremony," Guthrie said early in Friday's broadcast, and by the time the ceremony was over, it was clear that that message was largely a taunt.