Ah, but you say NBC didn't inform us of anyone else's sexual orientation? Yes, it did:
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.Mitcham was the only openly gay male at the Olympics. His surprise win was stunning, and NBC had great footage of his reaction as he realized he'd won. So this was one of the stories that deserved expansion with a little human interest documentary. Was NBC just afraid of putting off viewers? I suppose there are some people in the audience who would interpret any sort of emotional presentation of his background as some sort of in-your-face proselytizing.
It's possible that NBC failed to obtain shots of the family and the partner in the stands (since Mitcham wasn't expected to win). But if NBC deliberately eclipsed his sexual orientation, that was wrong.
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Unless you're Tarzan diving into a pool full of alligators to save Jane or some dumb tourist, diving is in itself kind of a gay sport.
Mitcham was kind of a surprise winner. I don't even think that they showed all six of his dives in the final. They also ignored most of the Bronze medalist's dives. It seems as likely an explanation that NBC Sports just isn't that good. (I should say this: The COMMENTARY on the dives was excellent. I just think the choice of which dives to show stunk.)
If, say, his partner was there to watch and NBC burked the story, that would be wrong...
On the other hand, shouldn't one wait for at least a bit of evidence before raising the charge?
"But if NBC deliberately eclipsed his sexual orientation, that was wrong."
Yes, because how someone chooses to sweat up the sheets is critical to their Olympic performance!
Diving's a sport?
Seems more like ballet or dance than running and wrestling. That is, both certainly involve athleticism, but the former are primarily about aesthetics. in a real sport, you don't have to vote for the winner, or wait for the results to be tallied.
If you lost in a sport, the scoreboard says
HOME 78 VISITORS 74
and anyone sitting in the stands knows who won.
Diving would be a sport only if two guys fought on the way down. All sports are sublimated violence.
Soooooo, I don't watch diving. I just keep asking, Why are they diving, and what is the point of a small splash other than it's a small splash? The arc of a football might be pleasing, but the point is to score, and a wobbly pass will count as much as a bullet, if caught. In diving, the viusal effect is the entire raison d'etre.
NBC wasn't wrong for not mentioning his sexuality; they were wrong for mentioning all the other crap surrounding the other athletes.
Plus, it's diving. I think most people kind of assumed...
Oh, how much does NBC (and MSNBC) suck? Let me count the ways:
1) in the tank for Obama
2) sold soul to the Liberals
....
infinity) cowards
NBC wasn't wrong for not mentioning his sexuality; they were wrong for mentioning all the other crap surrounding the other athletes.
Have not been watching the Olympics....is it over yet? Was NBC's human angle routine limited to knowledge of American athletes?
Good on 'im for his upset.
Independent George said...
NBC wasn't wrong for not mentioning his sexuality; they were wrong for mentioning all the other crap surrounding the other athletes.
Exactly! It is the Inernational Olympics. It is not the gay games, the straight games, or the married games. Who cares if Mitcham is gay, straight, or anything else. The games are not celebrating sexual orientation. NBC did the right thing. They reported the only thing that mattered; his win.
The big strike against Mitcham was that as an Australian, he was outside the approved NBC narrative of reporting on adversity or interesting life facts only if they are background and affecting Amuuurican! lives or the usual plethora of African "hero-athlete" sob-stories of growing up without shoes, struggling to help raise 11 other brothers and sisters, etc.
Lots of hugely interesting foreign athletes, but unless you follow the sport before the Olympics, you'll never know from watching NBC. And, probably, unless they are Usain Bolt, they will get little to no airtime of their actual competition, let alone their "inspirational history".
====================
BTW, for China, the Games were a stunning success. They gained huge face, and stunned the world with Chinese organization, competence, sheer power of numbers and 40 billion sunk into the Games. And learned to win gold medals in sports they had never competed in through planning and hard work.
Yes, they have human rights problems, but 86% of Chinese in a Pew poll say they are intensely proud of their country, it's 13% GNP and industrial growth rate PER ANNUM since 1996, and its Communist leaders for taking the country in the right direction.
The constant hectoring on human rights without a coherent policy towards China is likely counterproductive. It only makes the critics feel morally superior.
It's like how America was condemned by snotty Brits for our awful TV and the plight of the Negro - when our standard of living was exploding and we were dominating industry while Britain was sinking in rank decline as a world power, rising class conflicts as standard of living dropped, people had no confidence in their leaders. And when Britain was going into the sunset as a nation once known for getting things done.
We didn't take Britain too seriously back in the "you poor colonial bumpkins..." days, and China finds it equally presumptuous to be lectured by nations it is beating the tar out of.
Ann - I'd normally agree with you in this case. But you're forgetting one important detail He wasn't American.
Anyway - he's a diver. Shouldn't people just assume he's gay?
He sure is cute though.
And how's your boy McCain on civil liberties and fair treatment for gays, professor?
The 2004 GOP platform said "Homosexuality is incompatible with military service." Part of their "more hopeful world" view, apparently.
But we won't be hearing about this, will we? It would violate your faux neutrality.
Couple things and I'm repeating from comments on earlier posts.
The personalization of the coverage adds very little (meaning nothing). Put all that stuff on the Oxygen Network and leave the sports alone.
Judged events are usualy bogus sports: artistic, talented, athletic.. perhaps, but not sports. Rhythmic gymnastics..WTF?
I assume all male divers are gay, open or not, not that there's anything wrong with that.
About diving not being physically punishing enough to be considered a sport? The punishment is severe if the diver doesn't enter the water cleanly after twisting and turning from 20 or 30 meters up.
What would be the point of reporting on this diver's sexual proclivity? Are we all supposed to "celebrate" inversion?
Are there gay soap operas? I'd guess not. That's why.
NBC wasn't wrong for not mentioning his sexuality; they were wrong for mentioning all the other crap surrounding the other athletes.
No kidding! The family stuff was obnoxious. I can't count the number of times I said, "Enough with Phelps' mom!"
It is the Olympics, it is about athletic competition. The only person who cares if this guy is gay is his partner. Congratulations to him on the gold, but the Olympics would be a LOT better if they paid attention to why the athletes are there, to compete.
Trey
He's not American, so this isn't as blatant as it may seem. Frankly, I was really surprised they went into the whole Manaudou saga. We never get to hear about non-American athletes. I guess it was just so sordid that they couldn't resist.
It would have been nice if they gave him and his partner some air time, but I don't think it's a glaring omission that they didn't.
Maybe I am a bigot, but I really didn't want to see them nuzzling after his win. I just think that is inappropriate, and I don't recall seeing heterosexual couples nuzzling after their wins; I just think post-gold nuzzling is not for public broadcasting. This is the problem. Can't I watch the Olypmics without being treated to post-gold nuzzling? And, no, if it were lesbians, it wouldn't make it any better, even if it were hot volleyball chicks. I just don't want nuzzling with my Olympics.
Fuck it. I don't want gay nuzzling on my television screen, ever. Can't I watch the fucking Olympics without gay nuzzling? Can I have the no-gay-nuzzling-director's-cut of the Olympic broadcast? It's like inserting images of fat chicks into my porn. I don't want that. It totally ruins the whole vibe of me watching the events and the celebration and it not being totally fucking homo. Of course, fat chicks in porn isn't homo -- it just makes me impotent! No more gay nuzzling and fat chicks! Can't we decent, patriotic Americans agree on that singular proposition? If there is one thing this world and certainly this country needs less of, it is men frightened into impotence by overweight radical feminists and gay dudes with no sense of how to act in public. Must they be radical feminists, did you say? of course: why else are they so fat and inserting themselves into my goddamn porn? It is disgusting.
The attempt to socially condition the ordinary and normal heterosexual male really offends not only the senses and the heart but also the conscience of any person of reasonable intelligence and good faith. The Olympics is about the celebration of physical prowess and the dominance of indominitable will manifested in the disciplining of the corpus into a machine able to perform awesome feats only imaginable by demons cackling at the spectacle of Sisyphus tortured by his rolling rock in Hades until seen by all common men of decent vision and ordinary lust to marvel at agog and mouths agape in wonderment before nodding lewdly with tongues wagging at the notion of what delights might be teased from such delicious forms of hardness and suppleness beaten into tanned spiciness by the sun and the salt of sweat and the grind of an exercise regimen that no mere mortal could endure unless she is a superhuman sex-beast in the sack whose thighs can crush pillars of alabaster into asphyxiating dust that coats lungs and drops men dead like a bullet in the brainstem. Now what the hell does that have to do with fat chicks and gay nuzzling? Nothing! Nothing! Nothing! The Olympics is about tits and ass and victory and triumph and the forces of destruction and the grace of inspiration and the creation of heroes in random moments of arbitrary greatness that involve flexing posteriors and jiggling mammaries and skin-tight shorts and sports bras. Our national treasure is the naked flesh in competition against exotic foreigners pounded into defeat by our brazen, sultry nakedness stomping them down into meaningless abjection with our Nikes and Reeboks and tanks and ICBMs and privileged suburbanites who motor to practice in SUVs that rape the environment and pump methane into the atmosphere that impregnates the skies in India churn out monsoons that drown babies in floods that sweep away hopes and dreams and flailing limbs. This is the Olympics for Chrissakes! Zounds! Eureka!
There is no crying in baseball and there is no honor among thieves and there is no unfairness in love and war and there is no gay nuzzling in the Olympics. The only people in the world who want to see that are radical feminist fat chicks who need to get their grubby hands out of the gallon bucket of Haagen-Daas and their uflattering self-potraits out of my good old American porn!
There is no crying in baseball and there is no honor among thieves and there is no unfairness in love and war and there is no gay nuzzling in the Olympics. The only people in the world who want to see that are radical feminist fat chicks who need to get their grubby hands out of the gallon bucket of Haagen-Daas and their uflattering self-potraits out of my good old American porn!
Here, here, pip, pip, and all of that good olde English equine excrement. Only you should issue a spew alert before you write such things. The dog doesn't like coffe all over him.
Typical.
Very cute lad, if a little twinky. I prefer the middle weight Greco-Roman wrestlers. Why wait for NBC to show the twink kissing his boyfriend when I can watch their close-up shots of beefy men with their faces buried in each other's balls?
What mortimer b. said.
How about a headline, Althouse, just for you:
Liberal Victim-Group-Member Wins Gold
NBC Special Upcoming
Feeeeeeeel better now?
No more nuzzling! is even better than, No more wire hangers!
"NBC wasn't wrong for not mentioning his sexuality; they were wrong for mentioning all the other crap surrounding the other athletes."
Spot on. I don't watch the (limited coverage of) Olympic events to learn various athlete's personal stories. I watch to see the athletic contests, and want to see that and only that.
Further, in the sense of fair play the Olympics supposedly engender, if the announcers announce that a particular athlete is gay, or comes form a dysfunctional family, then shouldn't they also announce the sexual orientation and family circumstances of each and every other athlete?
Wouldn't it be best to announce that "Jane Doe, as you'll recall, is a heterosexual, but had several bi-sexual encounters while in college, and is the unwed mother of her daughter Talia, age 3, whose father is currently serving time in a federal prison facility for check forgery. A remarkable achievement for a woman who grew up in a home where the mother was an often-absent crack addict and the father was an over-the-road truck driver. Fortunately, her coach and mentor, the great Eli Spimoni was able to fill the roles of father, mother and sometimes lover. Hers is a remarkable story of perserverence and overcoming life's many hurdles."
Spimoni's definitely the go to guy for straightening out fucked up nuzzlers.
NBC did report that he was gay, repeatedly:
They showed footage of him waving his hands around limp-wristedly after each dive.
Watching that, I came to the conclusion that he must be gay. And I was right.
Palladian - Don't you think its a travesty that we're not conforming to the original ideals of the Olympics, by having athletes compete in the nude? Now that's gay.
But if NBC deliberately eclipsed his sexual orientation, that was wrong.
But if NBC deliberately pushed his sexual orientation in our faces, that would be sexual harassment.
What a guy likes to do with his sex organs or the sex organs of another person is none of my business, nor the business of anyone else, and to constantly rub our noses in this kind of stuff is nothing short of harassment.
I admire the eloquence of Brezny's comment. I too think gay nuzzling is off putting. However, the medal winner did seem a decent sort, and the quick hug he exchanged with his partner wasn't anything to get out of joint about. I think the lack of coverage was more about him being Australian and competing in a sport without broad appeal....I have never seen a porn tape featuring a fat, militant, radical feminist. Is this some new type of fetish? Do they smoke and wear high heels? I'm intrigued. Does anyone know any good fat feminist porn tapes?
Yes, they have human rights problems, but 86% of Chinese in a Pew poll say they are intensely proud of their country, it's 13% GNP and industrial growth rate PER ANNUM since 1996, and its Communist leaders for taking the country in the right direction.
Do you think that the Pew poll could possibly be indicative of reality? 10 million Chinese are still without electricty, 135 million people live on less than one dollar per person per day. Do you think perhaps Pew represented these groups well?
Incidentally, those numbers are from a piece of Chinese government propaganda. The real numbers certainly aren't smaller.
And as for NBC, I'm frankly not inclined to think the worst. He wasn't American, and he wasn't expected to perform as well as he did. I mean, sure, there's gonna be some folks who would have said "why do I have to watch this special interest-story about some gay Australian diver" but I'll bet the accent would have been on "Australian diver" more than "gay" for most.
10 million without electricity? That's less than 1% of the population. So what.
For one thing I think it's safe to say the number is higher. You don't have any trouble accusing our government of giving dishonestly low casualty counts in Iraq, so surely you ought to concede that.
But the point is, do you think that the Pew research folks went door to door to collect the results of their survey? If not you can bet not one of those people without electricity have been counted. Have they adjusted the percentages to compensate?
What about telephones? Here's some more propaganda proudly trumpeting that they're just now finishing rolling out telephone service across the country.
Let me give credit where it's due, however, I think that the Chinese have been pouring incredible sums of money into infrastructure improvements and it shows. But what we see here in the West is what they want us to see, and that's their successes. They've got a ways to go. For instance the modernization of their health care system has come at a considerable expense to their rural three-tier system, where more than half of their population still lives. You think it's bad here: according to this 2003 article, "in fully 70% of cases when Chinese people fall ill, they do not seek medical care."
I have never seen a porn tape featuring a fat, militant, radical feminist. Is this some new type of fetish? Do they smoke and wear high heels? I'm intrigued. Does anyone know any good fat feminist porn tapes?
Try feministing or the f-word. Whacking off to Jessica Valenti or Holly Combe is always a joy.
Mitcham was the only openly gay male at the Olympics.
Really? How did they figure that out? Do the athletes fill out a pre-olympic sexual orientation questionnaire?
I would like to know how many openly gay females and bisexuals were at the olympics. Why does the gay male get all the press?
downtownlad- absolutely. The Olympics would be vastly improved if we returned to more of the original spirit of the games. Lose the women. Get out the olive oil. Lose the Lycra, Phelpsy, let's see that big dick. Make Zeus proud!
No, he wasn't the only gay male or even female athlete at the Olympics. I saw a list of them before it started, and there were swimmers, divers, and what I most recall -- male equestrians.
('Cause that's my sport)
What on earth are Outsports talking about? Do they really think that an AMERICAN network should delve into an AUSTRALIAN diver's sexuality?
Hey, they didn't mention that Lauryn Williams is very religious. As a Christian, should I feel aggrieved that NBC ignored religion the whole of their broadcast?
Jeez.
Cheers,
Victoria
Since he was an unexpected win, why not give NBC the benefit of the doubt? What is this, a Cultural Revolution denouncing? Maybe the diver himself can tell us if he felt aggrieved.
I will always admire the Bingham family for their dignity after 9/11. Mark was a hero, plain and simple. (And much to my surprise, I just discovered that McCain attended his funeral.)
I think it's pathetic that anyone would even expect that this should be addressed as a matter of right or due course.
Would they also be required to document which Olympians pick their noses?
Impartial Observer, I grow weary of your one-track constant hectoring and I've come to view you as a typical troll. As I prepare to hack Ad Sense into causing your posts to vanish I thought it would be smart to disprove your accusations as some form of perverse projection. But that would require checking first.
+gop +platform +2004
Command F homosex
Well I'll be a buggered monkey's uncle, there it is. You weren't just making that up.
We affirm traditional military culture, and we
affirm that homosexuality is incompatible with military service.
The platform continues.
The Republican Party
created the all-volunteer force and opposes reinstitution of the draft, whether directly or through compulsory national service. We support the advancement of women in the military, support their exemption from ground combat units, and support the implementation of the recommendations of the Kassebaum Commission, which unanimously recommended that co-ed basic training be ended. We support sound priorities in the making of personnel policies, and candid analysis of the consequences of unprecedented social changes in the military.
Yes, I can see it now, a post on Althouse about NBC neglecting to mention an Australian diver's sexual orientation does indeed lead naturally to a statement on McCain and the 2004 GOP platform and the cite owners claim to neutrality which you reject because of the numerous bloggable events that occur and are discussed about your candidate that take root in your craw.
Allow me to attempt diagram this line of reasoning as far as a keyboard allows in an attempt to study at your side.
observation: gay Australian diver + observation: NBC failure to report human interest angle = blog post --->observation: GOP 2004 platform +McCain 2008 + stated equivocation of blog owner.
Brilliant! Holmes, you've done it again! This is to that is to that is to that is to that BANG! Dayitiz. The mind, Holmes, it boggles.
It's been over three decades since ABC rolled out the "up close and personal" approach to help them sell olympic sports that no one really gives a damn about the other 3 years and 50 weeks out of 4 years.
I've been patiently waiting for this approach to disappear ever since but, sadly, it has now infected almost every corner of televised sports, each event coming replete with little soap operas about love interests, deceased or disease-stricken relatives, brothers and sisters stationed overseas 'defending our freedom.'
I say: enough, already! If the sporting event being televised isn't interesting enough on its own merits, maybe you shouldn't be televising it in the first place.
Seems more like ballet or dance than running and wrestling. That is, both certainly involve athleticism, but the former are primarily about aesthetics. in a real sport, you don't have to vote for the winner, or wait for the results to be tallied.
Sorry, but wrestling, like boxing, is a judged sport.
What do you mean diving is a gay sport? Just because one faimous diver, Greg Louganis, was gay, everyone else who does it must als be gay???
I'll have you know I was a diver in high school and college, I can tell you that none of my team mates being gay, I mean... oh, wait, I'm gay... nevermind.
PS. But honestly, In the seven years I participated in the sport, I didn't know of anyone, other than the one obvious person, who was gay. There were mose than a few who I would have liked to have found out. But, this was in the 80's, so there were probably a few who, like me, didn't accept our own feelings and would not have given that secret away.
Palladian wrote: downtownlad- absolutely. The Olympics would be vastly improved if we returned to more of the original spirit of the games. Lose the women. Get out the olive oil. Lose the Lycra, Phelpsy, let's see that big dick. Make Zeus proud!
If Phelps is packing serious artillery then he would never have won all those Golds nude - too much drag.
"Constantly unacceptable" would be a helpful tag for this post judging from the comments.
Or maybe just "Harrumph!"
"If Phelps is packing serious artillery then he would never have won all those Golds nude - too much drag."
Men with big dicks never get into drag. I mean, why bother?
Sorry, but wrestling, like boxing, is a judged sport.
Not the same thing. Synchronized diving by 12 year old girls and loop-de-loop banner dancing by 14 year olds is judged by aesthetics; entirely subjective.
Boxing and wrestling get points for certain moves (pins, take-downs) or punches landed. Tallying is not subjective at all. And you can always win in each by totally subduing your opponent.
You can win boxing and wrestling ugly. And the participants often bleed. Neither is possible in gymnastics winners. Never ever.
Oh.
He isn't American.
Never mind, then. Of course NBC didn't mention that stuff -- he's not American, who cares?
Pogo,
Boxing is pretty subjective too, unfortunately. There was at least one match this Olympics where the clear point leader ended up losing by getting his clock cleaned by a "non-scoring" point.
It ought to be a sport but it's often not.
As for bleeding, obviously, gymnasts and divers do both, when they screw up.
Boxing and wrestling get points for certain moves (pins, take-downs) or punches landed. Tallying is not subjective at all.
Then you show you didn't actually watch the boxing at this Olympics, as subjective tallying was once again a problem. (And is a problem with amateur boxing in general.)
And you can always win in each by totally subduing your opponent.
A pinfall in wrestling is something that is called by the referee and confirmed by the other judges. Again, officials make their presense felt.
Also, there was a big stink when one wrestler gave up his medal because he felt he had been cheated by the officials. He had also gotten screwed over in the 2004 Olympics in Athens. The Court for Arbitration of Sport has ruled that the wrestler had good reason to be upset.
In other words, if you had followed Olympic boxing and wrestling you would know that there had been problems because of the judging.
You can win boxing and wrestling ugly. And the participants often bleed. Neither is possible in gymnastics winners. Never ever.
A bronze medal was won in the female gymanstics events by someone who fell on her dismount. That was certainly winning ugly. And if bleeding is a requirement for sport you may as well toss out all of the track events.
You can keep trying Pogo, but I'll out point you all night and all day tomorrow on this topic. It'll make for fine sport.
If Titus were awake he would say that Mort is a homophobe.
I'm late here but discussion is interesting.
My sister's writing an essay at college about being a gay sports person or some shit like that.But tbh I agree with peter V.Bella-
"Who cares if Mitcham is gay, straight, or anything else. The games are not celebrating sexual orientation. NBC did the right thing. They reported the only thing that mattered; his win"
Just saying.
"I have never seen a porn tape featuring a fat, militant, radical feminist. Is this some new type of fetish? Do they smoke and wear high heels? I'm intrigued. Does anyone know any good fat feminist porn tapes?"
I don't know about fat feminist porn or if Mortimer brezny was for real as the second link doesnt work. But I saw Holly Combe on TV a few months ago and I thought she was hot. Like not in a specialist way or anything either if you see what i mean.
My sister will be pissed off now.
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