NBC on Bode Miller interview: 'We're fine with it'

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 6:00 p.m. ET

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No controversy in the first 11 days of these Winter Olympics erupted as quickly out of Sochi as Christin Cooper's interview of American skier Bode Miller.

The on-camera interview, which took place immediately after Miller learned he won the bronze medal in the super-G on Sunday and ultimately led the skier to tears and an inability to continue the interview, drew immediate criticism in the Socialsphere and more traditional media.

The targets of the criticism were Cooper and NBC, the furor over Cooper's continued questioning about Miller's brother Chelone, who died in 2013, and what many perceived to be Cooper's attempt to draw the emotion out of Miller.

That night, the skier took to Twitter to defend Cooper, and ask that the criticism stop.

On Monday, the network offered up its own defense.

After NBC issued a statement defending Cooper, Jim Bell, the network's executive producer of the Winter Olympics, expanded the rhetoric in a conference call.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Bell said:

"You'd be irresponsible not to tell that part of the story," Bell told reporters during a conference call Monday. "That's what we do."

"Some of the reaction to it we understand," Bell added. But most viewers were probably unaware of Miller's back story prior to the interview: "People don't know these athletes; they don't know their sports," Bell said.

"We're fine with it and the guy who was the interview subject was fine with it," Bell said. "So I think that should be the end of it."

What do you think of Cooper's line of questioning? Leave your comments below.

H/t: Variety