The Winter Olympic Games are simply not my favorite. I live in Alabama which means there is no snow (hardly) and temperatures usually stay above freezing. I’ve never felt the thrill of wind brushing my hair as I ski down a mountain slope and the only time I’ve been ice skating was for my best friend’s birthday party in third grade.

However, watching the Olympics as a student journalist was enthralling. Given the opportunity to fly to Russia only to freeze to death in a parka jacket weighing more than the upper half of my body would have been a dream come true.

As a journalist, I love to inquire. The Olympians competing this year, especially the Americans, had so much inspiration, motivation and vision.

I began to brainstorm elaborate questions I would ask if given the opportunity.

Aside from the who, what, when, where and why doctrine most frequently preached in my journalism classes, I began to think outside the box. While creative questions are often praised, there is no reason to take it too far.

Bode Miller, American alpine skier, won third place and took home the bronze medal in the Super-G competition, short for super giant slalom. His post-race interview should have been an experience of joyfulness and pride in winning an Olympic medal. However, the interview made me physically sick and caused me to blacklist NBC reporter Christin Cooper.

Miller’s brother died of an apparent seizure in 2013, which as a journalist, I would assume would be a vantage point of inspiration or motivation for clenching an Olympic medal. However, Cooper pressed the issue too hard.

Upon winning the medal, Miller threw his hands in the air which Cooper took as meaning he was speaking to his brother in heaven.

“When you’re looking up in the sky there, and it just looks like you’re talking to somebody — what’s going on there?” Cooper said.

Miller hung his head and began crying profusely while the cameraman beamed the view straight to his face like a vulture. Cooper began to caress the emotionally broken skier, giving him a touch that signaled, “It’s OK. I’m here for you. Now answer the question.”

Cameras captured the emotional moment for the next 30, agonizing seconds.

I believe NBC and its affiliates overstepped their boundaries and displayed a poor example of journalistic ethics.

As journalists it is our job to remain objective and report the news from an honest standpoint, but it is always required we remain ethical. Obviously, Miller answered the question by saying he was here to win the Olympics for himself, not his brother.

However, Cooper continued to harp on Miller. He became emotionally unstable and the nation was able to gawk at his vulnerability broadcast on national television.

This scene for me was an outrage. Yes, I am gung-ho for hard-nosed journalism and digging up skeletons to uncover truth. But I am also a human being and can and will respect the feelings of other human beings to uphold the journalistic ethics I wholeheartedly believe in.