NBC’s Jones Calls Wrong Winner in 800

Move over Clem McCarthy, you’ve got company.

McCarthy is the old-time radio sportscaster who miscalled the 1947 Preakness. He said the winning horse was Jet Pilot, when actually the winner was, appropriately, named Faultless.

McCarthy wasn’t faultless that day, May 10, 1947, and Charlie Jones wasn’t faultless during Sunday night’s NBC Olympic telecast. Jones announced the winner of the men’s 800 meters as Nixon Kiprotich of Kenya, when actually it was another Kenyan, Paul Ereng. Kiprotich finished eighth.

Now this is the kind of mistake sports TV critics love to jump on and let the venom fly.

But it’s a little hard to do in this case.

For one thing, Jones just happens to be one of the nicest people you’d ever want to know, on the opposite end of the spectrum from Howard Cosell. And Jones, a network sportscaster for almost as long as there have been television networks, was finally getting his moment in the sun during these Games.

So you feel a little compassion. But more important, you have to admire Jones for (a) quickly admitting his mistake, saying, “This will forever be known as the blunder of these Games,” and (b) taking full responsibility.

It’s not known for sure, but a spotter probably got the two runners confused. Sure, maybe Jones should have caught the mistake, but neither of the Kenyan runners are that well known. Broadcast partner Frank Shorter also was confused.

Shorter said, “Paul Ereng passed Kiprotich in the middle of the last turn and we were looking so hard, we missed it.” Ereng wore No. 651, Kiprotich No. 656.

Jones could have ranted and raved on the air, as surely Cosell would have. Remember, it was Cosell who once yelled: “Who goofed? I’ve got to know.”

But Jones didn’t point any fingers. It’s often said the people on the air get all the credit. In this case, Jones took all the blame.

To NBC’s credit, someone in the production truck noticed the mistake immediately. The bet here is it was Tom Feuer, a former UCLA and Santa Monica Track Club runner who is one of the foremost track authorities in the country.

Before Sunday night’s telecast, track and field producer John Gonzalez, on the phone from Seoul, said of Feuer: “We hired him because of his knowledge. I have him sitting right next to me while we’re on the air.”

Feuer most recently was Prime Ticket’s publicity director, but he gave up that job to work for NBC during the Olympics.

Jones’ blunder was particularly unfortunate considering, generally, he had been doing a good job on track and field.

He has known when to talk and when to let the pictures tell the story. He called Ben Johnson’s 9.79 world record in the 100 meters “unbelievable,” but he refrained from the histrionics he displayed when Johnson ran a 9.83 at the World Championships in Rome last year. You may recall he yelled, “You gotta love it!” then. It was unnecessary fluff, and Jones was criticized for it.

Jones and Shorter have been a little slow at times providing basic information, but as producer Gonzalez said, “We have to wait until we can get the results, and sometimes commercials get in the way.”

Ah, yes, commercials.

One good thing about the presidential campaign debate, which interrupted Sunday night’s Olympic coverage, is that there were no commercials for 90 minutes.

The number of commercials during the Olympic coverage has drawn considerable criticism. It doesn’t seem to be as bad as it was during ABC’s coverage of the Calgary Winter Games in February, but almost.

The problem is, U.S. networks pay so much for the broadcast rights and then spend so much on production that in order to recoup their investment, they must oversell commercial time.

In this case, NBC paid $300 million for the rights and is spending another $100 million on production. By comparison, the Soviet Union and 15 other communist countries, collectively, paid only $3 million for the broadcast rights.

Didn’t George Bush and Michael Dukakis check the Olympic schedule before picking a date for their presidential campaign debate?

Actually, NBC asked that the debate be held after the Olympics. But another date could not be agreed upon.

So NBC was faced with a decision: Ignore the debate, or break away from Olympic coverage for about 90 minutes. Because of pressure from the NBC News department, the network chose to cover the debate.

During the debate, Bush, losing his train of thought regarding the MX missile, said: “I’m not an iceman, I’m not perfect.”

Maybe he had Bryant Gumbel in mind when he said that. NBC’s main host for the Olympics almost never stumbles or makes a mistake. However, this, amazingly, has drawn criticism.

He’s too perfect, people have said. He’s cold, an iceman.

Some have said they prefer ABC’s Jim McKay, who shows more emotion. Or Dick Enberg, for the same reason.

But the bottom line is Gumbel has been the consummate pro during these Games. His background in both sports and news makes him the ideal person for the job.

Enberg, for his part, has performed well while working gymnastics. He coined the phrase, “Imperfect 10s,” referring to the high number of perfect scores that were awarded.

And Sunday he came up with this very honest statement while talking about Phoebe Mills winning a bronze medal on the beam: “Even though my friends Bart Conner and Mary Lou Retton won’t like this, all the medals the U.S. won in gymnastics in ’84 were empty medals because the Soviets weren’t there.”

Now that the gymnastics competition is over, Enberg will switch jobs, working as NBC’s venue host and play-by-play announcer on the basketball finals.

Tonight, Enberg will be at the diving competition, where Greg Louganis goes after a gold in the 10-meter platform.

Add stars: Conner has been outstanding on gymnastics. He has provided enthusiasm, insight and criticism. He has been as good as Gordon Maddux was on past Olympics for ABC.

Gary Jobson, who did nice work for ESPN during America’s Cup competition, has been a standout on yachting for NBC.

Steve McFarland, diving commentator, is among others who have emerged as broadcasting stars during these Games. McFarland was a national diving champion in 1973 and ’74 and later a U.S. national team coach.

John Naber, as expected, has been outstanding on swimming, and boxing announcers Marv Albert and Ferdie Pacheco have generally handled all the controversies candidly and honestly.

Add boxing: NBC’s coverage of the melee that followed South Korean boxer Byun Jong Il’s loss to Bulgaria’s Alexander Hristov has drawn criticism from the Korean press.

In an editorial in the English-language Korean Times, a reporter who has watched NBC’s coverage on the Armed Forces network wrote:

“NBC’s reporting of the riot in the Olympic ring was so biased and malicious that many Koreans frowned upon the reporting.

“To the surprise of Korean viewers, however, the American broadcasters gave only small passing coverage of two American Olympic swimmers and their coach who stole a sculpture piece from a Seoul Hotel.”

The newspaper quotes a Korean college student as saying: “They hyped the boxing incident as if the Korean people were barbarians improperly educated to host the Olympics. But the theft is not news to them.”

Kevin Monaghan, NBC’s director of sports information, wrote to the Korean Times, calling the editorial unfair and biased.

“The unfortunate incident was a legitimate news story that NBC saw fit to cover,” Monaghan wrote. “The fact is, the action of the boxing and security officials was reprehensible. If the officials were American, Soviet, Bulgarian or Korean, we would have covered the story in the exact same manner.”

Monaghan also noted that NBC interrupted coverage of the Ben Johnson-Carl Lewis 100-meter final to report the theft of the sculpture.