Olympics coverage by NBC News questioned

To cover this summer’s Olympic Games, NBC News will deploy a journalistic force of some 450 people, including 25 reporters and its lead anchorman, Brian Williams. The network has been featuring Olympic updates on the Williams-anchored “Nightly News” and softer stories every morning on the “Today” show for weeks.

By contrast, ESPN, the 24-hour sports network, has sent just two reporters to London, plus a handful of blogger-commentators. ABC News is fielding an on-air team of five. CBS News and Fox News are relying on their London bureaus, which have two correspondents apiece. The top anchormen of all four networks are staying home. What explains the difference in the coverage? NBC News says the Games are such an inherently compelling story that its massive commitment is justified. But it might be a little bit more complicated than that. The differing approaches to covering the Games may provide an illustration of the forces that sometimes shape the TV-news agenda. In this case, what constitutes “news” seems to depend on not just who’s playing, but also who’s paying.