An update to the story of Matthew Mitcham, the only openly gay male competitor in Beijing and the first openly gay athlete to win a gold medal in the Olympics. Michael Jensen at After Elton asked NBC Sports why the Australian diver's award ceremony and story were not compelling enough for the telecast. Answer: We don't cover everything and "in virtually every case, we don’t discuss an athlete’s sexual orientation." It's quite an amusing spin.
When asked why at no point during the coverage did NBC mention Mitcham was gay or that his partner was in the stands, Hughes said, "In virtually every case, we don’t discuss an athlete’s sexual orientation."
When it was pointed out that in fact the network does exactly that by telling viewers about Olympic athletes’ various spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends, and even in one case a heterosexual "love triangle" Hughes responded, "Not in every case. Not every athlete has a personal discussion. I could show you 500 athletes we didn't show. We don't show everyone. We don’t show every ceremony."
Speaking a television news producer, absolutely, time and editorial constraints prevent discussion of every personal story. But c'mon. We don’t discuss an athlete’s sexual orientation. Each time the network discusses an athlete's girlfriend, boyfriend, love triangle, husband or wife, they are implicitly discussing the athlete's sexual orientation. Silly, silly "news" executives.
NBC on Mitcham’s Stunning Olympic Upset [After Elton]
Some Background ....
NBC "News" Ignores Sexuality of Gay Gold Medalist [R20]
Silly, silly "news" executives.
Astoundingly ignorant, arrogant, and fatuous "news" executives. (Although it is possible he was just pretending to be ignorant to cover his ass.)
There is no such thing as sexual orientation, unless it is gay. There is no such thing as skin color, unless it is black.
Posted by: Jim | 26 August 2008 at 23:48
Astoundingly ignorant, arrogant, and fatuous gays, there is more to our life then our sexuality. Our sexuality doesn't need to be brought up every time we do something. that is one reason why the str8 hates us so much because we make our sexuality the most important thing.
Posted by: sickntired | 27 August 2008 at 01:02
Astoundingly ignorant, arrogant, and fatuous gays, there is more to our life then our sexuality. Our sexuality doesn't need to be brought up every time we do something. that is one reason why the str8 hates us so much because we make our sexuality the most important thing.
Someone needs to come up with a term that is the gay equivalent of "Uncle Tom." I've met enough to last a lifetime.
Posted by: Jim | 27 August 2008 at 01:45
we gays cant win for losing...
Posted by: nahtans | 27 August 2008 at 04:32
How could any thinking person reply that way and mean it given all the post-Olympics hubbub that's arisen over who Micheal Phelps is dating....
Posted by: Ben | 27 August 2008 at 13:08
Ridiculous 'fig leaf' of a comment by NBC. We all know that if he was dating a woman there would have been numerous shots of her in the stands.....sad.
Posted by: ReggieH | 27 August 2008 at 16:30