U.S. Denies Suggestion of Its Potential Boycott

In an incident that spotlights the intensity of security concerns about the 2004 Athens Olympics as well as the amplifying power of one of American television’s most influential programs, NBC News’ “Today” show aired a report Monday suggesting that the U.S. might be weighing a boycott of the Summer Games.

It isn’t true.

U.S. Olympic Committee officials say they are not now, and have not been, considering a boycott. A U.S. State Department spokesman voiced “every confidence” in Greek security efforts. And later Monday, the executive producer of “Today,” Tom Touchet, said, “In retrospect, we would do things differently. Obviously, we were doing our best to put the thing in context.”

The “Today” story ran as one of the show’s lead reports, prompted in part by last week’s deadly train bombings in Madrid, which heightened security concerns across Europe. The Games begin Aug. 13. Greece is spending more than $820 million on Olympic security, more than three times that spent at the 2000 Sydney Games.

Over the weekend, a London newspaper, the Mail on Sunday, published a story saying the U.S. ambassador to Greece, Thomas J. Miller, had “privately” registered “serious concerns” that if not alleviated would mean “all American athletes would be withdrawn.”

Miller said Monday that was not so.

Nonetheless, the British newspaper story sparked the piece on “Today.” Campbell Brown, filling in for Katie Couric, interviewed Jim Scherr, the U.S. Olympic Committee’s acting chief executive. She said, “The U.S. ambassador to Greece has said that if Athens does not beef up security that the U.S. will not send athletes. Are you close to pulling the plug?”

No, Scherr said. Later, in a telephone interview, he said, “We are in no way not considering sending our team.”

Several sources said that before Monday’s broadcast of “Today” NBC News had not consulted with an undisputed in-house expert, the chairman of NBC Sports, Dick Ebersol.

NBC owns the U.S. rights to televise the Games in the United States from 2000 through 2012.

Ebersol said in a statement, “The ambassador’s complete denial today that he ever discussed this is in keeping with every conversation we’ve ever had. In fact, in our conversations over the past year at the highest levels of the U.S. and Greek governments, we’ve never heard of any such discussions.”