Canceling morbid reruns

LOOKS AS IF NBC must have taken some flak for reshowing and reshowing and reshowing the fatal crash of Georgian luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili.

How else would you explain a cease-and-desist order from NBC News president Steve Capus that forbids the footage to be aired by NBC or MSNBC without his permission?

TVNewser reported that an NBC spokesperson issued the following statement:

"NBC News handled the video of the luge accident with the utmost sensitivity. As we have done in the past, we felt the story had reached a point where it was no longer necessary to show the video when reporting on this tragic story."

Utmost sensitivity? Too little, too late if you ask us. The video is all over the Internet, and we suspect, still would be all over NBC if the network thought it would boost ratings.

Safety first and foremost

Steele said the training crash that proved fatal to luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili is a "reminder of the inherent danger" of sliding.

Call us silly, but we thought having an unpadded metal pole so close to the course was an even more inherent danger.

Dose of Olympic reality

The pair, now competing on CBS' "The Amazing Race," won Sunday's leg of the competition and earned a trip to Vancouver, where they will get a chance to ride a sled down the skeleton run at the Whistler Sliding Center.

Now that sounds like a really amazing race.

- Tom Mahon

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