Fox News Deletes Online Column Criticizing "Gayer, Darker" Olympics
Following outrage from various LGBT rights organizations, the Fox News website has removed a controversial editorial complaining about the diversity on the U.S. Winter Olympics team.
In response to a recent Washington Post article about the "still overwhelmingly white" team, Fox News vice president and executive editor John Moody suggested that diversity may actually cost Team USA medals in PyeongChang, South Korea.
This year's U.S. Winter Olympics team has a record number of black and Asian-American athletes, as well as its first openly gay competitors, Gus Kenworthy and Adam Rippon.
“Unless it’s changed overnight, the motto of the Olympics, since 1894, has been ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger,’” Moody wrote. “It appears the U.S. Olympic Committee would like to change that to ‘Darker, Gayer, Different.’ If your goal is to win medals, that won’t work.”
“Complaining that every team isn’t a rainbow of political correctness defeats the purpose of sports, which is competition,” he continued. “At the Olympic level, not everyone is a winner. Not everyone gets a little plastic trophy to take home.”
“John Moody’s column does not reflect the views or values of Fox News and has been removed,” said Fox News in a statement. A source from the conservative network also told the Hollywood Reporter that “the column was not put through the proper vetting process.”
"These athletes are at the Olympics because they already won by qualifying to represent the United States on the world’s stage," wrote GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Jane Ellis, demanding an apology from Moody, "and they did so despite facing discrimination from places like Fox News throughout their careers."
HRC senior national press secretary Stephen Peters called Moody's column “the antithesis of what the Olympics are all about and an affront to the values of hard work and perseverance that Americans share,” adding that "to suggest that race, sexuality, or gender orientation are the reasons these incredible athletes made the cut is insulting, repugnant and dismissive of a lifetime of hard work.”
