Did NBC snub gay diver?

I believe they kept showing him with one of his teammates, though I can't remember her name. They briefly mentioned at one point something about them being good friends.

 

To me, the question isn't did NBC slight him by not mentioning it as much as did they slight him by ignoring the obvious.

He was the only male competitor at the Olympics that is openly gay, according to that website. NBC had no problem discussing the social lives of other competitors (the swimmers' love triangle, the Chinese diver, etc.). So did NBC intentionally ignore his family in the stands (there was one very brief shot of his family/partner/supporters with no verbal mention) or did they just choose not to bring it up.

If they intentionally ignored it, they probably did so for bias reasons and should apologize. Maybe that's why they did so.

If they just chose not to bring it up as they didn't do with the home life of many other athletes, then it's a non-starter and they shouldn't have apologized.

Does anyone have a good shampoo to recommend to avoid splitting hairs?

 

As I said, that's probably a discussion best left to other boards. But I think it's obvious where I stand on that comment.

Despite the fact that at least a couple of the divers appeared to be gay, I continued to watch because my son and I were enjoying the competition. These guys are great athletes. I wouldn't have any problem going up to the 10 meter platform, but there's no way you'd get me to jump off it.

Had they made an issue of the guy being gay, we would have turned it off.

 

"Matthew Mitcham, who is being supported by his family, including his life partner, xxxxxxxxxx."

If NBC had done that, what would have been the problem. Please tell me that's not what you consider making an issue of him being gay?

 

"Matthew Mitcham, who is being supported by his family, including his life partner, xxxxxxxxxx."

Would you write that line in a sports story tomorrow? If so, would it make it through editing to see the light of day? First, it would generate plenty of irate calls and emails. Second it adds nothing to the story. Is there an athlete there who isn't being supported by someone? Tell me about the athlete whose family is rooting against him -- now that's a story I want to here!

Fixed.

 

How many times did they show Debbie Phelps and his family rooting for him. How many mentions of it? Made for good television? Would you mention it in a story that Debbie and family were there? Probably not. Bad comparison.

 

As a gay man (Hi Slappy!) who has now worked in sports for 20 years, I'm still amazed that people like Pertain retain opinions such as they are.

But it's a free country, where one can spout as much ignorance as one wants.

For the record, watching or hearing about gay athletes is NOT going to 'turn' your 2-year-old son gay. He either is, or isn't, already, and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. And you might as well start explaining the differences to him when he's of age to hear about sex, cause the closet's wide open and we are not going back in. Ever.

Also, I have pretty good gaydar, and let me tell you, even I can't just look at someone and say "He's gay." Oh, I'm correct most of the time. But for you ... step off. You are mostly clueless.

While I appreciate NBC's apology, no, you don't have to always let the viewers know someone is gay. It isn't important to the event. That said, if you are going to show his partner cheering for Matthew, like NBC did on a number of occasions, then yea, you'd be remiss not to mention who that person was and move on. From my vantage point, I had to endure many hetero relationships being discussed, some of them nauseating. So what's fair is fair.

 

You're gay? I always thought you were festive.

 

"But it's a free country, where one can spout as much ignorance as one wants."

Wait just a minute. The fact that I see this issue differently than you doesn't mean I'm spouting ignorance. I think I've been pretty civil in this thread. I've stated my opinions without degrading anyone, so I'd appreciate it if you did the same. We obviously are on different sides of the issue, but that doesn't mean we can't discuss it.

And for the record, I never even implied my son might try to imitate the actions of gay men. I talked about him imitating the events that were on the screen. And just as I don't want to see two men making out in celebration, I don't want to see that from a man and a woman either (even husband and wife). Just show me the sports and leave the rest of it for internet chat boards.

I guess now I see why a lot of sports fans would rather not watch the Olympics. Everything's got to be about this social issue or that social issue. Why can't a diving competition just be a diving competition?

 

Newsflash: Being gay is not a "lifestyle choice." It's the way God made me.

If you don't like that, the ignore button's that way:

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