The American media has been obsessively covering Michael Phelps on his quest to win eight gold medals this Olympiad – a feat that has never been accomplished. Up until now he has been perfect, managing to win his seventh medal by only .01 seconds in the 100-meter butterfly yesterday, and tying the previous record held by Mark Spitz since 1972.
Tonight, the buildup will finally reach its climax as Phelps races for his eighth gold to become what the media seems intent on calling “the greatest Olympian ever”.
Unfortunately for them, CNN has already spoiled the results.
Because many of this year’s Olympic events are not scheduled during NBC’s “primetime” coverage, they are typically taped and broadcast hours after events actually occur. CNN decided to ignore this, and Tweeted the results of the Phelps race on its “Breaking News” account (cnnbrk) hours before it was shown on air.
A quick search for CNN’s account on Twitter reveals an onslaught of criticism and outrage towards the major news network. CNN has tweeted the following in response:
Admin: wrt: olympics – CNN chose to tell the story of the world rec. men’s 100m. it’s in the world media. it’s breaking news – not spoiler.
I side with CNN on this one. Breaking news is breaking news.
Update: Looks like cnnbrk isn’t actually affiliated with CNN – it’s an unofficial account that posts stories that get sent through CNN’s Breaking News email alerts. Either way, CNN sent the news out when it broke.
I agree with CNN’s position.
I do too, in case that wasn’t apparent in the post.
“CNN Fails…” Yes, your support was not apparent.
Agreeing with CNN, your headline was an odd choice:
CNN “Fails” To Include Spoiler Alert In Tweets, “Ruins” Olympics
I was being sarcastic, apparently it didn’t carry over well. I’ve edited the post to be a bit more straightforward.
url of your blog post remains same even if you change the title later
congrats to Phelps from india!
So….even though the outcome got spoiled by CNN….Do you think it stopped Americans from sitting around on their fat asses eating a bag of cheesy poofs and watching TV for another 4 hour stretch of their lives?
Maybe NBC is wrong for tape delaying live events.
If people don’t want updates from CNNBRK or any other Twitter user, they can unfollow or turn OFF updates. Think the code is OFF Username. Believe this works in the web interface.
http://help.twi....page&id=75
PHELPS LOST.
Off-topic much?
its not cnn’s fault nbc tape delays stuff. when news happens you don’t wait hours to report it. that is just silly.
NBC is at fault for its reality control approach toward airing the olympics. CNN is entirely in the right. Twitter is about news and immediacy, and so is CNN. Its NBC’s own fault they think they can control news in this Web 2.0 era. NBC FAIL!
Its really stupid of NBC to delay the tape not CNN. CNN did the right thing.
Other day I watched USA China basketball game “Live” on NBC after almost 12 hrs of the Game. I decided after that I would just search on net rather than watching NBC.
She’s wrong on the Phelps race. Phelp’s race’s were live as they were swam in the morning bejing time, which was our evening. As far as the 100m, they were held in the evening, our morning, but were not televised until this evening. Winning a race is news, cnn reports news. If you don’t want the news, tivo it and stay away from news sources.
Phelps races were live on the East coast, but tape delayed 3 hours on the west coast. This is pathetically stupid of NBC. Either run them live, or edit to give highlights, but tape delay is just disrespectful.
It is one thing to tape delay 12 hours or so, but delaying for the west coast isn’t right. There is no possible way you could have been on the computer or watching TV in Cali and not have known he won. Everyone Tweeted and Updated Statuses here on the East Coast, i know i did. I didn’t include a *spoiler alert*.
The news is all over the internet, not just related/specific to CNN. People really should question why are we still watching recorded events during an age of instant information access.
Why blame CNN because NBC delays the broadcast? All that anger is going to the wrong source.
This post is ridiculous. CNN is breaking current news. That’s their job. Not news that’s time shifted to account for local broadcasting.
Well said…the problem isn’t with CNN at all, this is about NBC time shifting. I mean, what kind of idiots think that CNN ruined the Olympics? Are they the same ones that will accuse CNN of “ruining” the elections because they tell the results when they are available, and not when Twitterers want to see them on their news program? Sily.
I’ll side with CNN. In case some of you forgot, CNN is a news network aired around the world and reports the news as it happens. NBC is at fault for all the time shifting they’ve been doing between the East and West Coasts. And don’t get me started on how we were the only country that had no live coverage of the Opening Ceremonies. We’ll probably get screwed on the back end, too.
I totally agree with CNN, if you don’t want to know the results don’t read any Internet newspaper… AND TAKE CNN OFF YOUR TWITTER! A news agency can’t avoid e-mailing, posting or twittering because some network just doesn’t care about the olympics enough.
If you don’t wanna know breaking news, get CNN off your alearts… basic.
This is ridiculous. The title is inacurrate.
CNN didn’t fail to do anything, they did their job.
If you don’t want CNN’s breaking news, don’t follow this twitter feed, period.
Here’s a funny one – when you search Yahoo for “google.com” you get a weird result for something called “FartHammer.com”
http://www.thef...ast.com/huh.gif
Let’s be clear – cnnbrk is not run by CNN. It’s a twitter account owned by imajes (http://twitter.com/imajes) that uses the CNN Breaking News feed to autopost to the cnnbrk twitter account. So you can’t blame CNN for the twitter account.
I subscribe to new alerts from the NY Times and got an email for each major event from the Olympics, including other breaking news from around the world.
I find it hilarious that people (only in the west coast) are peeved that a breaking news twitter account alerted them of news as it happened. I know Twitter users have become accustomed to service delays, and they are astonished by tweets making it to them on time. Hopefully Twitter will resolve this for you by degrading their performance again and delaying messages for you.
So despite the PR noise CNN is NOT using twitter?
@Zoe: CNN does use twitter directly – however @cnnbrk is my feed.
Politicians flip flop and so does bloggers.. we can understand that
Being on the west coast, I unsubscribed from all news feed AND most east coast and central time zone twitterers.
WTF are you complaining about. It’s news, they report it.
CNN is not affiliated with NBC. Why should they delay what is actual breaking news because another network chooses to delay coverage of an event. Breaking news is breaking news. Should newspapers and news websites delay Olympic results because of NBC? No. So why should CNN?!
NBC’s at fault. Between CNBC, MSNBC, UHD, USA, and Oxygen, you’d think we’d be seeing a LOT of live action, but CBC in Canada shows more live events than the lot of them. Thank goodness for living somewhere in the USA where CBC is on cable.
stuff happens when it happens, not when NBC decides to show it. get over it. reddit commenters were getting annoyed with olympic results in the headlines too, and mercilessly downloaded.
Twitter is for idiots, but it doesn’t mean it’s only for Americans.
It was televised LIVE on NBC at 10:55pm (10:55am China Time).
Yes…live…no tape delay.
Ridiculous position to take for a site that’s willing to cover rumors and information on unannounced products. The news of Phelp’s win resonated around the world and was sent out via alerts from many media companies. Unfortunately yet another attention grabbing but insubstantial post. The author should have taken the twitter complainants to task for failing to recognize they are in a world of instant information
Totally siding with CNN on this one. Breaking news is breaking news, no matter what other networks do with the event video footage.
Argh! Just saw yet another e-mail alert from CNN about a new development in the Russia-Georgia war!!!! WHY DIDN’T THEY WARN ABOUT THE SPOILERS!
I’m still catching up on the news articles from a few days ago, and this ruins everything!
They’re not spoilers! CNN is doing its job, getting you the most current news. If you want to see things in chronological order, you should find an email client that lets you do so (if it’s really that important).
Yeah, he was being sarcastic.
James, no problem, when the USA starts its next useless wars in Iran and Georgia events will be tape delayed to air in prime time. And Twitter will be shut off entirely. Remember Iraq, first time around? US Military was trying to shut off the CNN reporters already then (and where are they now?).
‘Excuse me sir, when would you like your news – when it’s nice and fresh, or when it’s old news?’
‘Perhaps we can arrange it with the rest of the world that nothing interesting ever happens while you are asleep. That way, you can relax with your coffee, during office hours, and read all the news… as it happens?’
‘Oh dear, we’re really going to have to look at those NYE celebrations – real spoilers!’
Really? You’re mad at CNN? Really?
NBC shows the Olympics with tape-delayed events. They show *everything* 3 hours later in the West Coast and even have the guts to add their hypocritical “LIVE” logo to delayed events, and you’re angry at CNN! Really!!
In Brazil, a country which so far has achieved all of 4 bronze and one gold medals in the games, the Olympics are broadcast live in 5 different channels, 24 hours a day. And this is basic cable, we don’t even have to pay extra.
I’m astonished! At least I can keep following the games live in justin.tv, mogulus.com, and other such websites. =) Keep on watching the tape recordings (with commercials in the middle of every single event that’s longer than 90 seconds).
Sad to say, the USA has the worst Olympic coverage in the developed world. (And slightly off topic, message to Bob Costas: no one wants to hear your stupid opinions.)
Sad to say, the USA has the worst Olympic coverage in the developed world.
Really? You’ve spent a dozen hours or so reviewing all of the broadcasts from around the world? That’s quite an accomplishment.
Plenty of folks have already pointed this out, but…
CNN is news, not break it to you when you are ready.
Hang on, it’s a “breaking news” tweet. What did you expect?
How dare they send out the news when it broke?
If you look at the the tweets of cnnbrk, you’ll see the complaints were about them breaking the news about Usain Bolt’s recording breaking run in the 100m. Not Michael Phelps’ 8th gold medal.
Don’t expect facts from TechCrunch. It’s a blog, it’s not reporting.
Hi, i am curious. Can CNN sue Imajes for using the CNN logo and “representing” CNN on Twitter?
Are the people angry at cnnbrk for real? It seems to be awfully stupid to follow a breaking news feed and get angry when breaking news actually arrive…
This discussion reminds me of http://www.mlaw.org/wwl/
…
Answering a couple questions – i wrote the CNNBRK feed bot.
People were angry at both. it’s possibly the most reaction i’ve ever gotten to a story. It’s said that for every response, there are at least ten responses the same – so i must have managed to upset a few hundred people!
Re being sued – i have a level of support from cnn, which makes it less likely i’ll get in trouble.
Without siding either way (in this thread), you can’t open a browser without getting the news updates on this topic (even before you want them). Unless you open to google.com’s plain page and then go no where else. And if you try to isolate yourself from this topic, you’ll also isolate yourself from all other topics.
Heck, you can’t even say hello on Messenger without someone saying “did you hear…??” So your choice is leave your computer off I guess til the Olympics are over (if isolation is what you are looking for).
Blame NBC
not CNN or anyone misrepresenting them
I imagine most of the complainers are late adopters who just don’t quite “get it” yet. In a way I envy them… they still have the capacity to be surprised
I just don’t use twitter. Problem solved
My friend put up that feed for CNN. It’s automatically generated from their breaking news. Here is more about the feed:
http://newleade...ions/232-imajes
Olympics give disproportionately higher weightage to swimming and sprinting events. It’s stupid to call someone the greatest Olympian ever, when most people agree that even his swimming records owe much to the advanced swimwear technology. The only rational conclusion one can draw is that technically this the most advanced Olympics ever.
Yeah, because without his advanced swimsuit, Phelps can’t even swim…
Even Spitz admits Phelps is the best swimmer ever and considering how cocky he was in ‘72 that’s saying a LOT!
This is hilarious… unfortunately from here on… things will always be spoiled… stupid technology.
PS. Suggestions are needed to save Pandora Radio… http://www.goth...te.blogspot.com
kinda like needing the condom after the thrill and result
if you want instant blog=news deal with it or dont get in bed
should cnn delay the news of the guy who shot every one and jumped to cause it was the olympics
i agree it spoiled your fun but what about the x users who wanted the breaking news cause they didn’t have the time or know about watching it later , how would they have been serviced by this censorship ..
at least they are cool with who they are sleeping with !
poll
which surprise is a worse from delayed live tv events
Phelps 8th gold medal
Which David won American Idol
clearly i dont know how we deal with the delay ever week of the american idol results here on the west coast . its terrible!
People need to stop whining while the quirks of social media effects on global events get worked out. Overall the coverage by NBC has been nothing short of spectacular, with real time multiple event coverage online and off. Sure it would be nice if everything was live, but Beijing’s time is very inconvenient for most TV watchers.
People have been whining about tape delays when they could be watching online, and now this absurd idea that CNN should be *delaying the reports* to conform to the NBC delays not to mention the people who are over there *watching the events live*. You want them to shut up until you see the show? Sheesh – do you want me to use a tube TV, too?
Hehe.. soon the time will come when people will want all their important news during the “prime-time” in the evening.
“Floods in xyz kill thousands”… but couldn’t it wait till I get home from office and sit in front of the couch?
When a football game is played on the East Coast, us West Coasters have to watch it on those terms. Not 3 hours difference. NBC needs to broadcast the Olympics live (somewhere, it can be on one of the legion of stations they own). I have DVR, I can record it and watch it when I want. This Twitter account should be able to announce things live and it not be a problem. I follow people that live 3 hours ahead of me, and I’d like to experience the events with them.
My buddy has a petition going, don’t know if it’ll gain any traction, but you can sign; http://www.matt.../leading/?p=648
They don’t call them Twits for nothing. Phelps broke the record. CNN reported it through one of its channels. The twits on twitter need to get over it. Don’t like it, don’t subscribe to breaking news. Sheesh, how dumb can these people get?
I can’t understand the mentality of people who sign up to receive information and then complain when they receive it. It’s incredible.