Video of Nodar Kumaritashvili's Death: Poor Judgement and Poor Taste by NBC

Shame on you, NBC.

As if the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili wasn’t tragic enough, you chose to broadcast footage of the crash live during late night coverage of the Winter Olympic Games Friday night/Saturday morning.

The decision to air the clip of Kumaritashvili’s crash was in poor taste. What need was there to broadcast the footage, which clearly showed Kumaritashvili being thrown off his sled, over the side of the track, and into a support beam before lying motionless as onlookers rushed over to assist him?

This is an example of a lack of respect to the highest degree. NBC should have had more respect for the dead, Kumaritashvili’s fellow Georgian competitors, Kumaritashvili’s family, and the viewing public as a whole.

NBC and The International Olympic Committee (IOC), who own the copyrights to the video of Kumaritashvili, requested that Google block the footage, which in turn would cause the footage to be blocked by all sites that it was embedded into, including YouTube.

Google granted the request, causing the video to be blocked on Web sites throughout the Internet.

Good move, right? Wrong. While the video has all but disappeared from the Internet, there is one Web site that you can still view it on. 

You guessed it: NBC.com.

Why, NBC, would you request that the video be blocked throughout the Internet, but see no fault in leaving it up on your own Web site for everyone to see?

Don’t give me that it’s a copyright issue. It’s an issue of what’s right and what’s wrong.

Shame on you, NBC.