American TV Neglected the Saddest Story of the Olympics

That super-sappy recap of the “Magnificent Seven” from the 1996 games is nice and all — I’ll admit I get a little choked up watching Kerri Strug’s vault — but surely NBC could’ve spent a few minutes on this story, which is also pretty dramatic and heart-wrenching. Oh wait, it’s not about an American…

To an extent I can see their point in not covering Shin’s case in prime time. We are in America and residents of this country want to see their countrymen compete. But instead of showing nauseating profile pieces about Missy Franklin and how much she loves Justin Bieber or an interview where Andrea Kremer asks a swimmer what their strategy was (obviously their strategy was to win, Andrea), couldn’t NBC have donated five minutes to the biggest story of the Olympic Games to that point?