Sunday Night Football commentators Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth, and Olympic correspondent Vladimir Pozner, will host NBC’s coverage of the Sochi Olympics Closing Ceremony tomorrow night, the final night of the XXII Olympic Winter Games from Sochi, Russia. Bob Costas will anchor NBC’s studio coverage.
The Closing Ceremony will include Russian pageantry and the parade of flags and athletes from countries participating in the Sochi Games. The ceremony culminates with the extinguishing of the Olympic flame.
Olympic correspondent and Russian-American journalist Vladimir Pozner
According to Newsbusters, Pozner, sometimes spelled Posner, is a former Soviet Union propagandist.
In his Western media appearances Pozner was a charismatic and articulate apologist of some of the Soviet Union’s most controversial foreign and domestic policy decisions. A master of tu quoque, he would frequently draw parallels and point out similarities between Soviet and Western policies as well as candidly admit the existence of certain problems in the USSR.
In his 1990 autobiography, “Parting with Illusions,” Pozner wrote that some of the positions he had taken were wrong and immoral. In a 2005 interview with NPR’s On the Media, Pozner spoke openly about his role as a Soviet spokesman, stating bluntly, “What I was doing was propaganda.”
And then there’s this topic of course….
Pozner on effect of the anti-gay propaganda law on athletes and visitors: “I think zero. No effect at all. I don’t see anything happening at all. In fact, I think the powers that be are going to be super careful to see that nothing happens to any gay athlete or guest during the Olympics… Gay Russians have a very tough time.”
Right. Denial of basic human rights to an entire group of people. I’m sure outright bigotry and blatant discrimination will have no effect on the openly gay athletes competing in the games. Zero. Zip. Zilch. None.
At least Olympic correspondent and Pulitzer-prize winning editor of The New Yorker David Remnick has a little more fair and objective assessment on Vladimir Putin, and a more realistic definition of the difference between failure and success. Therefore, NBC has at least one talking head who’s not a host country house man:
“What Vladimir Putin wants to do is reassert Russia on the world stage and the Olympics is the greatest pop culture stage that there is. It doesn’t happen very often. If it goes well – if there is no terrorism, no violence and things work – for him it’s a great success, by his domestic terms. On the world stage though, remember, he is an autocrat. He is no a democrat. He has no interest in LGBT issues or human rights, all the things that are being discussed. He doesn’t care that you care that much. What you may think is a downside is not of great concern to him, unless there’s an incident of some kind.”
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An MBA and Fulbright scholar, he’s also a frequent analyst on news talk radio; with regular segments on ESPN,NBC, CBS and Fox. A former NBC Chicago and Washington Times writer, he’s also been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)