London Olympics: NBC gets reporter who criticized its coverage suspended from Twitter
An NBC store is seen through a window reflecting Rockefeller Center.
Is NBC censoring a reporter that ridiculed its Olympics coverage? It sure seems that way. Guy Adams, The Independent's Los Angeles bureau chief, has been suspended from Twitter after NBC complained about him, Deadspin reported.
In the offending tweet, Adams criticizes NBC for getting exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympics in the US, only to then shut American viewers out from seeing the opening ceremony live: "The man responsible for NBC pretending the Olympics haven't started yet is Gary Zenkel. Tell him what u think! Email: Gary.zenkel@nbcuni.com," he wrote.
According to NBC, they only complained because Adams had published Zenkel's email address: "We filed a complaint with Twitter because a user tweeted the personal information of one of our executives. According to Twitter, this is a violation of their privacy policy," an NBC spokesperson told the Guardian.
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But NBC's allegation doesn't add-up. Since the email address ends with "@nbcuni.com," it appears to be a professional account, not a private one."I didn't publish a private email address. Just a corporate one, which is widely available to anyone with access to Google, and is identical [in form] to one that all of the tens of thousands of NBC Universal employees share," Adams wrote to Rachel Bremer, Twitter's head of European PR.
Adams' theory is that NBC was actually just annoyed with his constant criticism of its coverage. "I have 1000 channels on my TV. Not one will be showing the Olympics opening ceremony live. Because NBC are utter, utter bastards," reads one tweet posted by The Independent. He also corrected some of NBC commentator Matt Lauer's geography and history knowledge.
As the Guardian noted, Twitter may not be the most biased source to judge Adams' tweets, since it has struck a deal with NBCUniversal to be "the official narrator" of the games.
"Matt Lauer would do well to shut up, wouldn't he?," Adams complained on Twitter. On that point, he's not alone.