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Groton Daily Independent
Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 223 ~ 39 of 52
When a backlash reached the Twitter feed of the Dutch embassy in the United States, Couric tweeted a good-natured apology about having been “on thin ice.”
NBC’s team of ski announcers has had a rough Olympics so far. Former ski champion Bode Miller is on his rst Olympic assignment for NBC and his overly technical, bland approach to calling races has left some viewers drowsy.
But it was his sudden foray into gender roles that really caused him trouble.
Commentator Dan Hicks brought up Austrian skier Anna Veith’s serious knee injury when he and Miller were discussing her career decline. Miller suggested another condition — matrimony — may have been to blame. “It’s historically very challenging to race on World Cup with a family or after being married,” he said. “Not to blame the spouses, but I just want to toss that out there, that it could be her husband’s fault.”
The backlash from people who considered the remark sexist was so immediate that Miller apologized on the air barely an hour later. He said it was a failed attempt at humor; his deadpan style had left almost no one suspecting he had been trying to make a joke.
Veith was also central to a serious mistake by Hicks. She was in rst place during the super-G competi- tion — apparently, marriage wasn’t hurting her in the Olympics — when Hicks prematurely anointed her the gold medal winner.
After the person considered to be Veith’s last serious contender couldn’t beat her time, Hicks said she was the winner and NBC switched to gure skating. But a longshot contender, Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic, beat Veith’s time and took gold.
The producers’ decision to move on was defensible; no one really thought Ledecka and some other nal skiers had a chance. The mistake was Hicks’ certainty. The announcers sought to explain themselves the next night by describing just how improbable Ledecka’s victory was, but that felt more like an excuse than an attempt at accountability.
While all different, NBC’s problems didn’t stem from attempts to be overly provocative or shocking, un- less Miller had motives he wasn’t letting on. Instead, they were misstatements made in front of listeners ready to pounce (the hashtag #nbcfail is a venue for people who want to grumble).
For two weeks, the men and women behind NBC’s microphones command the public’s attention the way very few can anymore in a fragmented society of media consumers. They’re ambassadors for sports that most Americans don’t care about for the three years and 50 weeks between each Winter and each Summer Games.
That provides them with an unparalleled opportunity, and many potential potholes. ___
More AP Olympics: https://wintergames.ap.org
Hospitals overwhelmed by bombing blitz of Damascus suburbs By PHILIP ISSA and ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press
BEIRUT (AP) — Doctors in Syria’s rebel-controlled suburbs of Damascus said Wednesday they were un- able to keep up with the staggering number of casualties, amid a ferocious bombing campaign by govern- ment forces that has targeted hospitals, apartment blocks and other civilian sites, killing and wounding hundreds of people in recent days.
The bombardment has forced many among the nearly 400,000 residents to sleep in basements and makeshift shelters, and has overwhelmed rescue workers who have spent days digging out survivors from the wreckage of bombed out buildings.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate suspension of “all war activities” in the rebel-held Damascus suburbs known as eastern Ghouta where he said 400,000 people are living “in hell on earth.”
The U.N. chief said a suspension of ghting must allow for humanitarian aid to reach all in need and the evacuation of some 700 people needing urgent medical treatment.
Dr. Waleed Awata described a desperate, chaotic scene at the small hospital where he works as an an-