WASHINGTON (August 8, 2016) - The American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (Order of AHEPA), the leading membership-based association for the nation's millions of American citizens of Greek heritage and Philhellenes, is dismayed profoundly by the egregious misappropriation and botching of historical facts about Alexander the Great presented by the producers of NBC Olympics during the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, announced Supreme President Andrew C. Zachariades.
NBC's commentators essentially rewrote history, claiming Alexander the Great came from the nation of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and won medals in the ancient Olympic Games. NBC Olympics also failed to properly reference FYROM as the International Olympic Committee does--as FYROM--and instead opted to recognize the nation as "Macedonia."
"It is unacceptable and irresponsible of NBC to convey such egregious historical inaccuracies to a global audience," Zachariades said. "NBC's research department clearly did not do its due diligence and botched its work. We urge Hellenes to call all upon NBC, and specifically, the producers of NBC Olympics, to correct the record at a point during the balance of its Olympic coverage when it will have its largest audience."
What You Can Do
Over the weekend, via Twitter, AHEPA cited the historical evidence presented by 374 classical scholars with regard to misinformation and inaccuracies concerning ancient Macedonia and its king, Alexander the Great to NBC Olympics, its producers, and research department, and AHEPA asked them to correct the record. If you have a Twitter account, we urge you to convey respectfully the same message to the following Twitter handles: @NBC @NBCOlympics @NBCOlyResearch
and @NBCSportsPR.
REFERENCE: http://macedonia-evidence.org/
REFERENCE/FOLLOW: AHEPA on Twitter
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