NBC’s coverage of the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing began Thursday night without the usual pomp and circumstance surrounding the Olympics.

Broadcasting from Beijing, NBC's Mike Tirico welcomed viewers to the Olympics by noting the Games were occurring in the “nation where Covid began” before citing concerns surrounding China’s genocide against the Uyghurs. 

“Everything and everyone attached to these Games is facing questions,” Tirico said. “The United States government is not here, a diplomatic boycott announced this fall joined by Canada, Great Britain, and Australia, citing China’s human rights record and the US government’s declaration that the Chinese Communist Party is guilty of committing genocide on the Uyghur Muslim population in Western Xinjiang region.”

During a pre-recorded video segment, Tirico described China’s detainment of Uyghurs and forced labor at internment camps. Tirico also noted the “escalation of crackdowns on pro-democracy sentiments and protests in Hong Kong,” as well as the disappearance of tennis star Peng Shuai. 

NBC has sought to temper criticism that they are propaganda tools of China's communist regime by pledging that their coverage of the Olympics would include China's geopolitical context. We applaud Tirico's efforts to fulfill that pledge. 

We don't realistically expect every single NBC commentator to bring up China's human rights abuses in every single sentence of their reporting on the Olympics, but parroting the communist regime's propaganda lines isn't the answer either. 

Andrew Browne, who joined NBC after spending several years as the Wall Street Journal's China editor, is undoubtedly aware of the long list of black marks on China's record (and indeed, his Twitter feed is interlaced with articles on those topics), but that just makes his commentary during Friday's opening ceremony even more inexplicable. 

“It’s worth remembering that while Western countries may be boycotting these Olympics over human rights issues, China styles itself as a champion of the developing world, and it has plenty of support in countries from Africa to Latin America where its investments are building up local economies,” said Browne.

Unsurprisingly, Browne's remarks sparked outrage on social media. 

We recognize the difficulty of filling air time when commenting on Olympic opening ceremonies other than superficial comments about firework displays, but this is what NBC signed up for when they sought the exclusive (and lucrative!) American broadcasting rights for the Games. The network drew similar scrutiny in 2014 for avoiding criticism of host country Russia. Do better, NBC.