NBC, the exclusive television home of the Olympics, became the exclusive repository of the Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte’s dubious tale of a gunpoint robbery in Rio de Janeiro last Sunday morning. At once sensational, then debunked, Lochte’s terrifying yarn resurrected memories of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o’s strange story three years ago about a dead girlfriend, one that Deadspin exposed as a hoax.
Lochte spoke on the beach to Billy Bush of the “Today” show several hours after the incident, and the video quickly became fodder for solid reports that led “NBC Nightly News” three times and others that were carried by MSNBC and “Today.