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Deadspin finds CBC to be more jingoistic than (gasp!) NBC at Sochi Olympics

Chris Zelkovich
·Chris Zelkovich

So how's this for taking a time-tested stereotype and turning it upside down? The CBC, that long-admired paragon of objectivity, has been found to be more jingoistic than NBC, the long-standing icon of chest-thumping, pro-American Olympics coverage.

According to Deadspin's Jingometer, which has been tracking how much NBC focuses on American athletes, the CBC has actually out-jingoed the U.S. network. Yes, according to Deadspin, we've become the Ugly Canadians of broadcasting.

Reuben Fischer-Baum tracks how many times networks mention their own country. Here's what he found about Thursday's TV coverage:

"We've pulled the numbers for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and, sure enough, the U.S. doesn't look so exceptional. The U.K. sucks at the Winter Olympics (and only has 56 competing athletes), so it's not too surprising to see that their focus is largely on other nations. For Canada, the Winter Olympics are a rare moment in the international spotlight. As a result, CBC's coverage has put an enormous emphasis on Canadian athletes. In terms of nationalistic focus, CBC beat out NBC in four of the first six days of Olympic coverage."

After the first six days of Olympics competition, the CBC has out-jingoed NBC on all but two days. On the first day, he found that 48 per cent of all CBC coverage involved Canadians.

Say it ain't so.

While one can argue with the Jingometer's methods -- does mere mention of your country's name really indicate jingoism? -- it does confirm a new reality in Canada's Olympics coverage. The time-tested Canadian method of covering the Games first and Canadians second no longer exists and hasn't for at least four years.

In ancient times -- say a decade ago -- Canada didn't do very well at the Olympics. We didn't win many medals and usually finished well down the standings. As a result, broadcasters focused on the events. In fact, they took some criticism for following most events by interviewing a Canadian who finished 22nd before they interviewed the winners.

But Vancouver, in particular, changed everything. For one, Canadians started winning like they'd never won before and emerged as a dominant nation. Suddenly our broadcasters had the welcome opportunity to focus on Canadians who had won instead of also-rans talking about how happy they were to have tried their hardest. The public ate it up in record numbers, in part because we much prefer to watch success stories.

The CTV-Rogers consortium that handled the Vancouver Games overdid it a bit with the pro-Canadian coverage, waving the flag at every opportunity. But television viewers couldn't have cared less. As long as Canadians were winning, we really didn't care much about Russian skiers or Latvian lugers.

That explains why the Jingometer has the BBC looking so objective. Television, after all, is about attracting viewers and as a rule viewers don't watch the Olympics to see failure. If their nation isn't winning, they want to see heart-warming stories and spectacular performances.

That's the boat Canada's broadcasters used to be in. Now they're in the winners' boat.

Focusing on winners and contenders more than likely explains Deadspin's Jingometer findings, as Fischer-Baum pointed out on Friday:

"Yesterday was a big day for the U.S.—we swept the slopestyle ski—and 38 percent of NBC's participant mentions were for the United States. Canadians won zero medals—the first day in Sochi they've been blanked. Only 32 percent of CBC's mentions were for the home country, setting a new low for the Olympics so far."

So basically, when your country wins you devote a lot of TV time to it. When they lose, not so much.

As for NBC, America's performance doesn't have much to do with a perceived drop in jingoism. NBC's philosophy is to focus on stars first and tell stories second. So far there haven't been any Michael Phelpses in Sochi, so NBC tells stories -- and some of those stories are about foreign athletes.

But if some American emerges as a bonafide star that could all change.