NBC Censors Sexual Orientation Of Openly Gay Gold Medalist Diver

[marmar]

from ThinkProgress:




NBC Censors Sexual Orientation Of Openly Gay Gold Medalist Diver»

According to OutSports.com, of the 10,708 athletes at the Olympics this year, just 10 have identified themselves publicly as being gay. Of the 10, Australian diver Matthew Mitcham is the only male gay athlete.

Yesterday, Mitcham won the gold in the in the 10m platform diving event, scoring an upset over the Chinese team, which was heavily favored to win. But as Maggie Hendricks at Yahoo’s Olympics blog notes, NBC never mentioned Mitcham’s orientation:

NBC did not mention Mitcham’s orientation, nor did they show his family and partner who were in the stands. NBC has made athletes’ significant others a part of the coverage in the past, choosing to spotlight track athlete Sanya Richards’ fiancee, a love triangle between French and Italian swimmers and Kerri Walsh’s wedding ring debacle.

In his press interview after the event, however, Mitcham stood with both his mother and his partner, Lachlan, thanking them for the support they’ve provided. Watch it: http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/24/mitcham-olympics/


Mitcham first came out in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald on May 24. Mitcham said that they couldn’t afford for Lachlan to attend the games, so had applied for — and was awarded — a grant through the Johnson & Johnson Athlete Family Support Program to send him to Beijing.

According to the LA Times, the first thing Mitcham did when meeting with journalists after his win was “hug the reporter who handled the story with particular sensitivity.”


http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/24/mitcham-olympics/

[LostInAnomie]

1. Why is an athlete's sexual orientation relevant?

[marmar]

4. But the whole story about not being able to pay for his partner to attend....

.... then having Johnson and Johnson pay for him to attend is a compelling one - a story that networks usually love.
And, quite honestly, being an openly gay athlete in just about any sport is a compelling story in and of itself. The male sports world isn't known for its open-mindedness when it comes to matters of sexual orientation.

[flyingfysh]

12. Good for Johnson & Johnson

I'm glad my wife and I own a ton of stock in that company.

[npk]

5. It's only relevant

If NBC deliberately refused to show his partner or inform the people watching on TV that he was gay.

[LisaL]

6. Why do they have to inform people whether the

athlete straight or gay? Do you propose they inform the audience about everyone's sexual orientation?

[npk]

10. They don't have to inform people he is gay

Mitcham already did that. But if they refused to show his partner because he was gay then that would be wrong. I have watched the coverage of these game, and in almost every situation, especially where a athlete has won a gold medal, they have shown his family in the stands. I think that is what the OP was trying to say.

[BlooInBloo]

20. Don't bother. You're talking to someone who is concerned about gay folks getting "special rights".

[LisaL]

21. Do you like making shit up?

When did I ever state anything of the sort?

[TankLV]

26. You don't have to - your statements speak for themselves...

...like yours above...

You'll never "get it"...

sad, really...

[BlooInBloo]

37. You're not sly.

[-..__...]

31. They've shown the familes of ALL the gold medal winners...

or they've only shown the families of the American gold medal winners (Mitchum is Australian)?

FWIW... I haven't watched a single second of the Olympic coverage. I just don't have any interest in it.

[alarimer]

41. They never once mentioned his partner or showed him as far as I know.

Not a word about it.

[TankLV]

24. DING! DING! DING!

We've got a winner!

YOU "get it"...

[Smarmie Doofus]

8. For this reason:

>>>Why should they mention that he’s gay? For one thing, it’s newsworthy. For a second thing, sports coverage spends a good deal of its time playing up girlfriends and boyfriends, husbands and wives, and children of heterosexuals. Recognizing somebodys gay partner is not “special treatment”, but the same treatment.>>>>

From the comments section at the link.

It doesn't seem especially complicated to me.

[LisaL]

11. What exactly makes it newsworthy?

[npk]

15. According to the OP only 10 athletes stated they were gay.

Considering the climate that still surrounds people who openly admit they are gay I would say that is definitely news worthy, especially on the Olympic stage.
Considering that this is also a political issue in terms of gay rights (such as gay marriage). After all isn't that what the Olympics are all about any way, politics :sarcasm:

[Smarmie Doofus]

16. Do the math. The odds that the only gay male athelete...

>>>According to OutSports.com, of the 10,708 athletes at the Olympics this year, just 10 have identified themselves publicly as being gay. Of the 10, Australian diver Matthew Mitcham is the only male gay athlete.>>>>

... involved in the Olympics winning a gold medal is a statistical anomaly.

Among other things... that is exactly what makes it newsworthy.

[TankLV]

28. Are you being intentionally ignorant or just can't read?

[LisaL]

30. I am done with this.

Posting on here is getting more ridiculous every day. Some people are incapable of understanding that someone can have an opinion different from you.
I don't need the headache of responding to all of your ludicrous insults.
Fuck off.

[npk]

2. This is very disheartening

If indeed NBC intentionally refused to show his partner in the stands or inform the viewers that he was gay, simply to censor his sexual orientation, that is despicable to say the very least. This man showed a lot of courage and he was sacked by the NBC coverage. That is really unfortunate for the athlete, and shameful on NBC.

[LisaL]

3. Right. Cause they should always point out what

some athlete's sexual orientation is.

[npk]

7. No they should not point out an atheletes sexual orientation

You are correct. But on the other hand they should not deliberately refuse to point out if an athlete is gay. I'm not saying they did that. As i said in my OP, I don't know if they intentionally refused to show his partner, because he was gay.

[LisaL]

9. Do they show boyfriends/girlfriends of every athlete

competing? No. So, what exactly would the complain be?

[Unvanguard]

39. Do they show the families of other winning athletes? Yes. All the time. n/t

[classiclib4life]

13. Exactly.

And a "Haha Look at the Gay!" moment would be ten times worse; and generally thats what media turns things like that into.

[LisaL]

14. Exactly.

If they were screaming "look at the gay competing, and look, there is his boyfriend," people would be complaining just the same. Why can't this guy just be an athlete?

[Smarmie Doofus]

18. Apparently he doesn't want to be "just an athlete."

>>>Why can't this guy just be an athlete?>>>

Why can't he be what *he* wants to be and not what you or someone else wants him to be?

[LisaL]

19. You've lost me there.

He can be whatever he wants to be. I am not sure as to why it's necessary to announce that he is gay while he is performing, or show his boyfriend. Do you expect every athlete's sexual orientation to be announced? Is every athlete's boyfriend or girlfriend shown on the air?

[dsc]

22. actually if they are in the crowd they most usually were

It isn't like there were 50 divers they were covering here (like say in team gymnastics). There were 10 divers of whom about 5 were shown more than once. They consistently showed the families of the US divers complete with labels.

[LisaL]

25. This guy is not from US.

[dsc]

29. I know that

but his family wasn't on Mars it was in the cube and surely could have been shown.

[Smarmie Doofus]

32. I don't know why you'd be lost..

You asked, "Why can't he just be an athlete?"

Apparently he doesn't want to be just an athlete. Why can't he be what he wants to be?


Please dont say "He can be whatever he wants to be" again unless you recognize that it's inconsistent with "Why can't he just be an athelete?

>>"Do you expect every athlete's sexual orientation to be announced? Is every athlete's boyfriend or girlfriend shown on the air?>>

'Course not. Every athlete does not win a gold medal. Every athlete does not come from way back in the last round with a near perfect 9.8 dive to edge out a *heavily* favored opponenet in a dramatic fashion. Every event does not rate primetime NBC coverage.... esp when the American team is out of contention. Every athelete is not the only self-identified gay male of 10,000 plus contestants.

I'll defer to folks who watch the Olympics all the way thru ( I did not, but I did watch the event in question). Apparently it is the *norm* in circumstances similar to those described above to show and/or identify and/or interview the family and significant others of gold medal winners in comparable circumstances.

[npk]

17. Are you kidding.

"Ha Ha look at the gay guy." Is that what you think this is all about.

That was even more despicable.

[Bonobo]

23. Was the press conference shown on NBC?

[IndianaJones]

27. what is it about these threads that draw out a certain type of poster? nt

[begin_within]

33. They should have treated him the same as any athlete there: that is to say:

If they are going to show the husband or wife of an athlete who is doing really well and winning a gold medal, and that husband or wife is cheering them on or whatever, then they should have certainly shown Matt's boyfriend cheering him on and stating, "Matt's partner Lachlan, very happy about that dive..." and so forth. They should not have eliminated shots or mention of his partner if they are going to show the spouse of other competitors (which they rarely did, but I saw a lot of parents these last 2 weeks.)

[npk]

34. At the very least

NBC missed a great opportunity to showcase a great human story.

[ben_meyers]

35. Why would you bring crap here from Think Progress?

Have you ever read the comments there? They have about a dozen regular posters there who have the collective intelligence of a room full of 1st graders. It really is an embarrassment to the progressive movement.

[IndianaJones]

36. how do they compare with some of the people in this very thread? nt.

[ben_meyers]

40. At least here you can put someone on ignore

If you put just the imbeciles at tp on ignore, there would be no one left.

[ThatsMyBarack]

38. Would CBC censor that?

I don't think so.

[gi4obama]

42. I am glad the Olympics are over

The only excitement was from Michael Phelps and the Canadian sailor who rescued two of his competitors at sea.

[Beregond2]

43. Wow.

I am astounded at some of the bigotry displayed in this thread. "Special rights." Are you kidding me? I thought that wingnut canard was put to bed in the nineties.

My initial reaction to the story was: "Oh, big deal. It was probably an oversight." But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this is indeed the sort of story the media love. The only possible reason to ignore his partner was because he was gay. God forbid the kiddies back home might get the idea that it's OK to be gay!

Actually, it's all about the advertisers. They still live in fear of right-wing boycotts, and some of them are downright homophobic themselves. And as Orson Welles used to say, TV is about one thing: selling soap. Anything that might cut into revenues is too risky.

So much for the high ideals of the Olympics.