Motto, It Seems, Is ‘To Each Its Own’

In newspapers all around Britain, sportswriters are sounding a recurring complaint about NBC’s coverage of the Atlanta Games. They describe it as highly partisan, even jingoistic, and charge that most of the non-American participants are ignored.

But those who switch on the British Broadcasting Corp.’s Olympic coverage find programming that is almost totally focused--with equal patriotic fervor--on British participants in the Games.

Before an event, commentators pump up the British contestant. After the event, they pump up the volume of excuses for a less-than-glowing outcome.

Indeed, finding sufficient subject matter for broadcast can be dicey because Britain has so far performed dismally, having won fewer medals this year than ever before.

“For Great Britain, disappointment,” seems to be heard by BBC commentators at the end of almost every televised event in Atlanta.

Although charges of shameless American nationalism are being heard both in the United States and around the world, many of the other 170-plus countries broadcasting from the Olympics likewise seem to be following primarily the fates of their own contenders. Flag-waving cheerleading, rather than objective reporting, is not uncommon.

While Atlanta Olympic Broadcasting is providing 3,000 hours of generic coverage to 64 countries--with cameras positioned all over the region at every venue--most augment what they receive with their own productions, said Erin O’Brien, AOB director of planning and information.

Like the BBC, during peak viewing hours the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. has focused its taped profiles and post-event interviews almost entirely on Canadian athletes. Providing such coverage has proved challenging because the Canadian team, like the British, won few medals in the early days of the Games, resulting in a lot of repetition.

Double bronze-medal-winning swimmer Curtis Myden, for example, was interviewed three times during a 12-hour period after his second third-place finish.

After Canadian Donovan Bailey won the gold medal in the 100 meters in world-record time Saturday night, the CBC virtually ignored the rest of the events and repeatedly replayed Bailey’s race.

The Canadian emphasis reflects the mandate of the CBC, a state-owned broadcaster, to tell Canadians about their own athletes, even though some of the top Canadian performers in Olympic sports are relatively unknown even in their own country.

Other countries similarly obsess on the local angle.

Brazilian athletes have won more medals in Atlanta than in any previous Olympics. And it seems as if Brazilian television and news organizations are breaking records for coverage too.

Brazil has sent 225 athletes to Atlanta, its highest number ever, accompanied by one of the largest contingents of journalists from any nation.

About 65% of daily news coverage on TV Globo, the nation’s primary television network, is devoted to the Games, said Marcos Moura, the network’s operations director. The network also breaks into other programming with live updates from events in which Brazilians are participating.

Soccer, the nation’s most popular sport, is transmitted live and gets the most viewership, Moura said. Because Brazil has qualified for the semifinals, daily life is expected to come to a near-halt while Brazilians huddle around their television sets. Beach volleyball, judo and sailing also rate breathless interruptions to report on Brazilian success stories.

The South African Broadcasting Corp. is providing a special “Afro-centric” feed highlighting the accomplishments of African athletes and focusing on events that Africans find of particular interest. The broadcasting company provides feeds to up to 22 other African countries.

“We call our coverage ‘Afro-centric’ because we concentrate on the achievements of Africans,” said Robin Kempthorne, the SABC team leader. “In the past, African countries had had to take the NBC coverage . . . [which] means all they’d be seeing is Americans.”

This is the first time such a feed has been offered to African countries, Kempthorne said. The goal was to help countries that did not buy broadcast rights. Most of the coverage centers on track and field, soccer and boxing, Kempthorne said.

The achievements of other countries, such as America’s big victory in women’s team gymnastics, were downplayed.

“We would report that in a news summary, ‘This happened today,’ ” he said. “But our focus would be on African-interest events, such as 15 minutes of soccer.”

But patriotism is not the only force at play. Coverage in some countries--notably Mexico and Russia--is being lauded for its balance and global perspective.

In Mexico, the two national networks--Televisa and TV Azteca--have copiously followed every event that includes Mexican athletes. Mexico’s soccer matches were aired live and in full, and special attention was lavished on little-known Olympian Bernardo Segura, Mexico’s bronze-medal-winner in last week’s 20-kilometer walk--and so far the country’s only medal winner.

But the Mexican networks have covered American Carl Lewis with even more zeal than their native sons and daughters. TV Azteca dubbed him “a legend” and dispatched a reporter for a one-on-one interview within moments of Lewis’ historic gold-medal long jump Monday night.

For his part, Lewis could not be accused of excessive national zeal.

“Do you have any message for Mexico?” the TV Azteca reporter asked the flag-draped Lewis from the sidelines.

“Mexico?” Lewis replied, beaming from ear to ear. “Yeah, I love you guys. You’re my neighbors. . . . I live in Texas.”

Mexicans have lavished similar attention on Russians, Bulgarians, Australians and Canadians. In fact, they have praised virtually every athlete who has turned in a stellar performance, even when competing against Mexicans.

Mexican crews rushed to interview an Ethiopian runner in the women’s marathon who far outdistanced two prime Mexican contenders. Their cameras and microphones were trained first on the Ethiopian woman, then later on their own runners.

Officials at China Central Television have reportedly been instructed not to show images of Taiwanese athletes, because China considers Taiwan one of its own provinces and not a country that can compete independently. During a live telecast of the opening ceremonies, cameras cut away from the entrance of the team from Taipei to prerecorded images shot from high above the stadium.

In Russia, coverage is focused on its national athletes, but reporting is markedly more balanced than it was during Soviet years.

One sign of the newfound objectivity developing in Russian broadcasting has been the reporting of controversies involving home-grown athletes. When two Russians were stripped of their medals because of doping, the scandals were reported as a national embarrassment rather than as a Western conspiracy to squelch Russian competition, as would have been the case during the Soviet era, observers said.

In fact, coverage of the Atlanta Games has actually referred critically to Russia’s previous propensity for national boosterism. Conversely, it likened the U.S. tabulation of medal winners during the first few days of competition to the kind of fervent patriotism that used to exist in Russia.

The Itar-Tass news agency said of the early U.S. projection of itself as the overall medals leader, “It was reminiscent of a time in [Russia] when portraying the national team as superior was the most important objective.”

Times staff writers William Tuohy in London, Craig Turner in Toronto, Carol J. Williams in Moscow, Mark Fineman in Mexico City, Jane Hall in New York, Maggie Farley in Beijing and Susan King in Los Angeles and researcher Paula Gobbi of the Rio de Janeiro bureau contributed to this story.