Bob's Eye

The Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia have been the topic of choice for the past few weeks. The dangers and risks of hosting the Olympics in Russia have been all too prevalent. From severe gay rights laws to unfinished and broken hotels, Russia definitely didn't use this mass coverage as a way to represent itself to the world. 

News anchors and journalists are discussing the Olympic issues left and right and making predictions on what is to come. A Twitter was even created to document all of the problems and mistakes happening in Sochi such as athletes getting stuck in elevators and breaking bathroom doors to just get out. The Twitter account with 410K has more than the actual Sochi 2014 account that only has 249K followers.

The mishaps of the Olympics seem to be outshining the Olympics games itself. Amongst all of the hub bub in Sochi, the light falls on the one Olympic NBC announcer we all know and love, Bob Costas. Costas has been hosting the Olympic game coverage since 1988. His style is old fashion reporting, delivering news and events without opinionated comments. He is a long time crowd pleaser, and one Americans know and trust to deliver the sports news.

But the reason Costas as been trending on Twitter and having headlines on Yahoo isn’t because his reporting style changed or some scandalous event occurred. No. What caught the attention of social media users all over the United States is his ever so apparent eye infection. Forget about ice skating and sledding, let’s all obsess over Bob’s red eye! From the first day of the Olympics, Costas was wearing his glasses with his left eye looking red and swollen.

The Tweets began immediately! “What’s wrong with Bob’s eye?!” “Did Putin hurt Bob?!” “I bet Bob drank the Russian water.” 

Twitter users made concerning comments left and right about Costas’ eye and what could have happened to him. It was announced that Costas has a mild eye infection and that he was being tended to. But the Tweets continued! People even created Twitter accounts for Costas’ eye.

Costas powered through the swollenness for a few days when the infection spread to his right eye. Then, it became apparent that he was no longer able to be on camera and should be replaced until the infection got better. But by that time the Twitter madness was already in full swing. Amongst all of the winter games and events, Bob Costas’ eye is the one getting the publicity.

From Sochi Problems to Bob Costas’ eye, it just goes to show the power of social media. It can take a simple eye infection and turn it into headlines everywhere.

Until next time, 

Nikki Darling