By Rory McIlroy has a 10-shot lead at the moment in the 2011 U.S. Open. South Korean YE Yang is tied for second. NBC, who is televising this year’s U.S. Open, acts like Yang isn’t even playing in the tournament.
On the 3rd hole we see Yang’s tee shot but nothing else. When he was putting for birdie, NBC showed a short piece on former Open winners.
On the 5th hole, none of Yang’s putts are shown.
The 6th hole after McIlroy tees off, you’d think NBC would show Yang’s tee. Nope, they don’t. Instead we get a fluff piece on McIlroy.
There was an earlier lapse in NBC’s coverage of Yang on either the 1st or 2nd hole but I didn’t take notes.
Hardcore LPGA followers have been noting for a long time the way Korean golfers are covered on television. Or call it lack of coverage. Just a month ago NBC had no problem telling us David Toms had a very poor record at The Players Championship while he dueled KJ Choi. NBC didn’t mention that Choi’s record at the TPC of Sawgrass is even worse.
Yang just made birdie at the 6th hole to pull to nine shots behind. NBC also issued an apology for editing out part of the pledge of allallegiance in a opening segment of today’s broadcasts.
2:46 pm on June 19th, 2011 1
the ACLU should take this issue up as racism against asians! oh wait asians are normally considered upper-middle class like most white people so the ACLU will have no interest in it!
3:30 pm on June 19th, 2011 2
Democrats are only interested in non-whites that need welfare…
4:35 pm on June 19th, 2011 3
They probably don’t want to show that hideous shirt YE Yang is wearing.
5:32 pm on June 19th, 2011 4
It’s all about who the golfers’ sponsors and TV stations’ advertisers are, I’m sure.
5:40 pm on June 19th, 2011 5
I don’t know how much golf coverage you watch, but this is standard practice when the leader has a lead that looks insurmountable. It has absolutely nothing to do with Yang being Korean, and to suggest so belies an ignorance of the way networks broadcast tournaments.
The amount of coverage you see of the rest of the field is inversely proportional to the distance they stand from the lead. As the lead shrinks, their shots become more important and thus get more coverage. With a 9-10 shot deficit, Yang’s shots have little significance, because no one gives a shit about the battle for second (or tied for third as Yang ended up). Rory is the story and he deserves the overwhelming majority of the coverage with such a commanding lead.
If Yang had been within 3-4 shots, they’d have been all over him, especially with Rory’s collapse at the Masters and the potential for a repeat.
7:29 pm on June 19th, 2011 6
Korean LPGA golfers get no empathy from me. They are responsible or expected to speak to sponsors(in English?) especially after rounds and correct me if I’m wrong, but they don’t. Annika Sorenstam didn’t necessarily enjoy kissing up to the sponsors but she did it, saw it as part of her job.
Since they don’t there has been a sizable decrease in sponsors/TV coverage/events. Some(MOST)of those Korean LPGA players have gone to university abroad in English speaking countries so they CAN speak English, but they choose not to. It’s just a matter of time before they complain(Korean logic) about the decline in winnings.
“In 2010, total official prize money on the LPGA Tour was $41.4 million. This represented a decrease of over $6 million from 2009. In 2010 there were 24 official tournaments, down from 28 in 2009 and 34 in 2008. Despite the loss in total tournaments, in 2010, the number of tournaments hosted outside of the United States stayed the same. All four lost tournaments had been hosted in the United States.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LPGA
Expect the 2011 numbers to be much worse.
8:45 pm on June 19th, 2011 7
#5,
Here’s how I watch golf coverage:
I switch channel, see golf, and turn to something else before I’m even done exclaiming, “Hell, no!”.
9:10 pm on June 19th, 2011 8
I think what iheartblueballs is saying at #5 makes sense and it appears to offer the best explanation. The focus on Rory McIlroy over Yang cannot be because Yang is not American, as McIlroy is from Northern Ireland. Him being White is not a satisfactory explanation, given the dominant focus on Tiger Woods for so long.
Given the record-breaking (?) performance, it’s natural that he would be the predominant focus, even to the exclusion of other players. Media coverage wants to tell a story to generate continued interest, and a “fluff piece” would do just that.
And frankly, given how South Korean sports media tends to focus more heavily on South Korean athletes whether they are winning that event or not, I’m not going to fault NBC for failing to highlight the top-performing Korean player. The only really egregious thing that NBC Sports could do regarding Yang would be to include in his back story an editorial on Korea being a baby-exporting nation.
Tbonetylr wrote:
Wow. Shocking. The dominance of Koreans on the LPGA tour can be the only possible explanation for a loss of sponsorship from 2008 to 2010.
I thought their primary responsibility was to be really, really, really good at golf.
Are the non-Korean and non-Japanese players expected to speak to sponsors in Korean and Japanese when they’re in Korea and Japan? Serious question.
11:27 pm on June 19th, 2011 9
Who said anything about “primary”? Sorry, but English in the International language, the reason they went to English speaking countries for university. Really now, seriously
7:02 am on June 20th, 2011 10
I’d rather watch soccer, which I’d rather not.
9:28 am on June 20th, 2011 11
I’ve been watching pro golf on television for 33 years. 22 years ago, Mike Reid contended for the Masters title, and in spite of finishing the 3rd round in a tie for 2nd, CBS didn’t show him hit a single shot on Saturday. The round was interrupted by inclement weather, but CBS had plenty of opportunities before that.
On Sunday not one of Reid’s was shown till he made birdie at 8 to tie for the lead.
In 1979, CBS didn’t show one of Fuzzy Zoeller’s 4 shots at the 15th hole on Sunday. Fuzzy went on to win by the way.
The description of what NBC was doing with Yang early in the round, is described as incompetent at best.
NBC had no problems showing golfers further down the leaderboard. Yang was in solo second or tied for second when those shots were skipped. The fluff piece could have started after Yang hit his tee shot.
2:21 pm on June 20th, 2011 12
Deleted by administrator. One more personal attack and you will get banned.
4:21 pm on June 20th, 2011 13
You may be right that they only focus on the leader in a runaway, but that is dumb. No. 2 is still a big purse, and focusing on a battle for that would be more interesting to viewers than canned tripe.
7:50 pm on June 20th, 2011 14
You know I think this has nothing to do with race per se but having worked very close to the media I know that all news is local even when it shouldn’t be. Remember what our mommas said “life is not fair”
8:40 pm on June 20th, 2011 15
Personal attack? For contrasting the claim of 33 years of watching golf on tv with the lack of knowledge of how golf broadcasts are actually run?
Clearly I’ve stepped into the wrong arena.
Please carry on with the circle jerk sans sanity then. Yang was the victim of vicious racism by NBC. All future broadcasts will be directed to exclusively cover the battle for second place and ignore the greatest run in US Open history.
Happy now?
7:38 am on June 21st, 2011 16
As I was saying, switch channel and exclaim, “Hell, no!”.
PS. I love hitting balls at the driving range farther with my 65000won 7 iron and my “unconventional swing” than those snobs with their million won drivers do.
4:27 am on June 26th, 2011 17
Whether Yang was korean or mexican, nobody cared about 2nd place and that is why he didn’t get any coverage Bill. They were watching history being made and to break away from Rory to see what second place was doing would have been waste of the viewers time.
As an aside, when watching international sports here, Korean players are highlighted ad nauseum…J.S. Park montage highlights for every frickin’ little touch he has on the ball during the ManURE games. Same for the other korean footy players on the other EPL teams and what’sHisName on Celtic in the SPL. Drives me mad…
On the note of Korean LPGA players, they are certainly not helping out their cause by refusing to learn the international language and using it during the PGA events. Not surprised and neither are none of you regulars here…they go to amerika, play the sport and take whatever they can and bring it back to their biutiful corea
Koreans learning english…that is Un-Korean!