Breaking news alerts as Phelps spoiler
Cory Bergman August 16th, 2008
Alright, so most Lost Remote readers agree that Michael Phelps is news, and the results should be posted above the fold, with no spoiler alerts, for all on the West Coast to see before it actually airs. But what about a breaking news email alert with the results in the title? That’s what the Seattle Times did Saturday night moments after the race, spoiling the results of Phelps’ final swim.
Update: CNN also sent out a breaking news alert, and it was automatically republished on Twitter (which for most people, comes across as a text alert), sparking a ruckus in Twitterland. It happened via cnnbrk, a Twitter user unaffiliated with CNN who automatically “tweets” CNN breaking news alerts as they happen. Some of the responses:
Thank you @cnnbrk for spoiling the olympics.
wow @cnnbrk i hate you… you just spoiled the olympics for me!
@cnnbrk hey jerks!!!! Don’t ruin it for me!!! UGH!!!!
Some jumped in to defend cnnbrk, but one Twitter user had this to say:
Why aren’t people pissed @NBC for not showing the games live out west?
For many connected Americans on the West Coast, it’s just about impossible NOT to hear about the outcome of the historic race before it aired. Unless, of course, you leave the TV on NBC, turn off your computer, hide your cell phone and wrap your house in aluminum foil, just in case.
15 Comments Add your own
1. Joe Rosemeyer | August 16th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
CNN did the same thing. To me, that move was expected.
2. Jason Salas | August 16th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
I guess the mentality was that if someone’s going to spoil news for consumers, better you hear it from us than from our competitors.
3. Anonymous | August 16th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Sigh. We’ve had this discussion already. News is news, mediums be damned. You signed up for breaking news alerts and that’s what you got.
If it was the opposite and dealing with other news, we’d be seeing posts here about how worthless breaking news alerts are because they make you click through to the site, etc…
This is a problem of NBC’s making, not one of organizations providing news alerts to consumers who asked to receive them.
Any and all angst over the issue should be directed at the company tape-delaying the games.
4. Anonymous | August 16th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
CNN et al. are going to catch hell for it, although the blame does fall to NBC. NBC should especially be castigated for claiming, on-screen in bright gold letters, that the event was “LIVE”.
First it was the Chinese cheating with 13-year-old gymnasts, now it’s NBC cheating with fake live events.
5. discreet_chaos | August 17th, 2008 at 12:44 am
Eh… Has there actually been a question about whether the fellow would win eight, once he had gotten number seven? I mean, first of all there’s the adrenaline factor, but I’m sure whomever might have beat him would’ve realized that doing so would’ve cost them access to the American market and though they may not have actually thrown the contest, I’m sure the history and the claim that they were number two to Goober would’ve most likely been enough to sustain them.
After all, how can you capitalize in our market, if your name evokes boos among the viewers of late night and early morning television?
6. Yea It's Mark | August 17th, 2008 at 3:16 am
Phelps, I Spitz on you.
7. Anonymous | August 17th, 2008 at 4:08 am
NBC offcially lost it’s mind when they hired Fred Silverman, we all know this and if you don’t you have a very long beard and a permanent imprint of the mountaintop you were on.
8. Bill K | August 17th, 2008 at 8:50 am
If you follow enough people on Twitter and get their texts, you were bound to hear about it anyway. The solution for me was to turn it off till I’d watched. Not really that difficult. you have to expect it…
9. Brink | August 17th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Hey, you wanted to know what was happening–that’s why you signed up for Breaking News alerts. You didn’t sign up for “everything but the Olympics” alerts.
These Olympics seem to be making otherwise normal, rational people into nutballs.
10. Don Day | August 17th, 2008 at 10:56 am
I was trying to avoid the news — and I guess I should have just stayed off the ‘Net - because TV NEWSER of all place ruined the news for me.
Hey, I get that people are East Coast centric and don’t give a crap about the Mountain and Pacific time zones… but this was one of those times when some discretion should have been shown.
11. Michael | August 17th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I was flipping through the channels at 10:30 pdt and for just 2 seconds it was on my local FOX news affiliate and on the screen was was a graphics spoiling the results. Is that even legal? They broadcast the results before NBC did.
12. Dave | August 17th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Laughable really that throughout the rest of the world we’ve been able to watch live, but in half of Phelps’ own country it was delayed! Especially as it was NBC who made the swimming schedule completely different to usual, to allow the finals to be shown in US prime time (and the middle of the night in Europe).
Makes me more thankful that where I am we have the BBC, who don’t have to worry about commercials like NBC does.
13. Safran | August 17th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Why isn’t the question: “Why didn’t NBC show this historic, newsworthy event live all across the nation?” It was 11pm here on the East Coast. So, you Westies were well done with dinner and an after-meal coffee, and it was Prime Time when Michael entered the history books.
Instead of insisting that the rest of journalism and the online world play deaf, why doesn’t NBC just recognize the newsworthiness of a certain event, change its gameplan, and “break in” with it live on the West Coast?
14. Brink | August 18th, 2008 at 4:48 am
“Is that even legal? They broadcast the results before NBC did.”
Sorry, NBC doesn’t own the world. There’s nothing illegal (thankfully) about reporting the results of an event before that event airs on TV.
15. Anonymous | August 18th, 2008 at 11:02 am
On the West Coast, we also always get a breaking news alert on who won Best Picture just before the Oscars begin.
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