NBC's Sneak Attack on NASCAR

I reported yesterday on the revelation that NBC's Dateline show was planning to infiltrate this week's NASCAR event in Texas with very Muslim looking people in the hopes of generating a racist response. Many people are wondering what in the world NBC could be thinking given that they are a NASCAR broadcast partner and will be broadcasting the second half of the season. Here's one opinion (h/t Instapundit):

I'll leave the media bias charges to somebody else, but here's another angle that folks in the sports biz ought to think about: What in the world are the folks who run NASCAR going to think about this when they find out?

Last time I looked NBC was still one of the circuit's broadcast partners, and now NBC News is attempting to provoke a racial confrontation at a NASCAR race, one that is sure to not only paint certain individuals as racists, but paint the entire NASCAR culture as racist too.

If I were at NASCAR HQ, I'd be blowing a gasket about now, and getting on the phone to NBC Sports in New York. After all, this is occurring against a backdrop of NASCAR's increased efforts to bring minority drivers and owners into the series, and expand its appeal outside of the traditional Southern fan base.

In other words, something like this may very well cost NASCAR some money. And while there are undoubtedly racists at any large sporting event that draws literally hundreds of thousands of people each weekend, I can't help but think that NBC's choice wasn't a coincidence.

I doubt that NBC Sports and NBC News spend a lot of time coordinating with each other on potential stories, but you'd think that the folks in the news department would be aware of the network's association with NASCAR. However, this is NBC's last year with the NASCAR contract. Next year the second half of the season moves over to ABC and ESPN, and maybe NBC doesn't care if it paints its partner in a bad light.

One thing's for sure - if NBC thought they could pull this off without anybody learning about it, those hopes are now dashed. I saw a report yesterday that said that NASCAR fans were calling NASCAR's headquarters in Daytona Beach and they were very aware of what was going on. You can bet those folks, who very diligently protect their sport, will be on the lookout for the NBC crews and their plants. If Fox wanted to, they could have a lot of fun with this at NBC's expense during the weekend's broadcasts. One wag made the following suggestion:

If I ran Fox, I'd be figuring out who NBC's Muslim "ringers" were and putting a not-so-hidden camera crew all over them during the race. This would totally blow NBC's story out of the water.Also, throughout the broadcast of the race I'd be replaying clips of the original faked Dateline story about the trucks catching on fire and making snarky comments about keeping the Dateline crew away from pit road.

Someone else volunteered to dress up as a Muslim and volunteer for the assignment - just so they could get a free trip to the Texas race. Why not - good tickets can be tough to get.

This will be another black eye for Dateline, and even if they proceed with the report, the whole effort has now been discredited.

UPDATE: If Dateline wishes to film racist acts or acts of religious hatred, why don't they just put a yarmulke on their producer and follow him (or better yet her) into any mosque in the world?

UPDATE 2: here, here, and here.