NBC coverage covers where else to watch U.S. Open

There’s a reason NBC’s big-event host, Mike Tirico, couldn’t stop pitching NBC’s new Peacock Network during the first two rounds of must-see U.S. Open coverage:

NBC and the USGA conspired to turn the Open into the latest money-grabbing bait-andswitch, starting Thursday afternoon when live coverage on NBC or NBC’s Golf Channel suddenly disappeared to directives that the rest can be seen via streaming on the Peacock Network.

And, said Tirico, it’s easy to make that switch to something that few know anything about. So the U.S. Open was exploited to sell a new NBC viewing device. Those viewers who were watching suddenly could go to hell.

Naturally, the USGA, incredulously could have told NBC, “You want to do what to live coverage of the Open?” NBC’s scheme should have been dismissed as preposterous.

But what was once rejected as “out of the question” has been replaced with, “How much?”

Thursday’s live coverage disappeared for nearly six minutes as Tirico conducted a split screen remote interview with Hale Irwin, who won the 1974 Open at Winged Foot.

That interview lasted far longer than needed because, as Tirico obediently said coming and going, it was commercially sponsored. It was conducted not for viewer enlightenment but for money.

➤ So as if nothing happened, Showtime has resumed production of “All the Smoke,” starring Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, two ex NBA players who had rotten behavior in common and still rely on vulgarities and calling black men the N-word to attract and sustain an audience.

Jackson returns after issuing hateful, ignorant comments about Jews, would fully expect and advocate the firing of a white man for such remarks about blacks. Yet he continues work as if he’s immune from such a standard. And he’s right.

As for Showtime, owned by Viacom/CBS, why not state the self-evident: “We tolerate antiSemitism.”

➤ Fox’s Erin Andrews was shocked that an empty stadium allowed her to hear Tom Brady holler vulgarities?

In 2014, CBS caught Brady angrily screaming “F--k!” on the Patriots sideline. So what did CBS do? It replayed the scene three times, twice in slow-motion to ensure that everyone, and of all ages, got the message.