Is NBC Creating A China, U.S. Rivalry With Carillos Features On Chinese Culture?
CULTURE CLASH: In Boston, Joanna Weiss writes under the header, “Nothing Says Great TV Like An Olympic Rivalry.” The Beijing Games “have shaped up beautifully to be a matter of us versus the Chinese,” and an “undercurrent of NBC’s coverage is the notion that these powerful Chinese are really different from us.” After a feature in which Carillo sampled some obscure Chinese foods, she returned to the studio and “handed Costas a fried scorpion on a stick.” Weiss: “The message: These people eat bugs. They cannot be trusted.” While the NBC announcers have “largely steered clear of rumors, not everyone got the message,” as analyst Bela Karolyi has asserted numerous times the China women’s gymnasts are underage (BOSTON GLOBE, 8/15). In DC, Paul Farhi writes of Carillo’s feature Thursday night on the artist who designed the Olympic logo and the Fuwa, “Despite being hugely under-reported (Persecution? In China? When? Why?), Carillo’s piece was sensitive and thoughtful and — here’s the really g
