NBC Doesn't Shy Away From Tragedy

NBC may have intended to throw a big party for Friday's opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, but the events of the day, to wit, the death of a competitor, forced the network to call a temporary halt to the fun and frivolity.

The network eschewed the expected opening panoramic shots of Vancouver and its surroundings set to the Olympics theme, "Bugler's Dream," to go right into coverage of the story of Nodar Kumaritashvili, a Georgian luger who died Friday during a practice run before the official opening of the Games.

Off the top of the broadcast, Bob Costas and Matt Lauer, on hand to anchor the ceremonies at Vancouver's B.C. Place, launched a solid eight-minute block of coverage into Kumaritashvili's death.

The reporting, smartly handed off to the network's news department, was probing, but sensitive, noting the questions that had been asked about the safety of the course, as well as documenting the crashes that had taken place before Kumaritashvili's fateful practice run.

Still, the tone of the coverage seemed aimed more at explaining the accident through the prism of the inexperience of the 21-year-old athlete rather than calling attention to what the viewer could obviously see.

Namely, the wall over which Kumaritashvili slid over seemed perilously low, and his crash into an unpadded concrete support beam appeared inexplicable, yet it took to near the end of the report for news anchor Brian Williams to raise those questions.

Of course, NBC didn't linger over the incident, moving to the beautiful pictures and American-centric features and interviews. Here's hoping Friday won't be the only time we hear the name of Nodar Kumaritashvili and that it won't be the last time the network explores how he died and asks why.