NBC airs Shaun White’s vulgar exchange with coach

As Shaun White began to close in on a gold medal in the halfpipe finals at the Winter Olympics on Wednesday night, NBC aired an exchange between White and his coach Bud Keene that got a little f****ing vulgar.

From Yahoo! Sports.com:

At first there were whoops of celebration. But then things got a little R-rated.
Keene: What do you want to do?

White: I don’t know, man. Ride down the middle?

(Chorus of noes.)

Keene: No, have some fun.

White: Drop a double mick?

Keene: Yeah, drop a double mick at the end. Do whatever you want and [expletive] send that thing. Make sure you stomp the [expletive] out of that thing.

It went downhill from there if you can read lips, at which point NBC announcers Pat Parnell and Todd Richards apologized for the language and defended it by saying that a lot of energy was running through White and his coaches. The apology was necessary (even if it did draw more attention to the curses – they were tough to hear without rewinding), but NBC was apologizing for the wrong people. They shouldn’t be apologizing for Bud Keene; they should be apologizing for the network showing it in the first place.

I agree with the Yahoo! Sports article. NBC screwed the pooch by airing the dialogue. It’s not Keene or White’s responsibility to clean up their language when they’re having what should be a private conversation. Unless they’re giving an interview and they drop a couple of F-bombs on everyone, then they shouldn’t be criticized in this situation. They’re adults and some adults talk this way. NBC should have planned ahead better.

Staying on topic: White is freaking awesome. He is snowboarding.


Photo from fOTOGLIF

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