A “journalist” from the Daily Beast has caused a world of outrage after he walked around the Olympic Village luring gay male athletes with the dating app Grindr.
In the article, reporter Nico Hines — a straight, married man — recounted using dating apps like Tinder and the gay-oriented Grindr to meet athletes in the Olympic Village in Rio.
He then outed them in a pointless, condescending and creepy article, for no apparent reason. Except maybe to make fun of closeted athletes trying to meet each other in a space they can feel safe in.
Some of the athletes, who could easily be identified by anyone who knows how to use Google, come from repressive countries where homosexuality is illegal.
The article was originally titled ‘I Got Three Grindr Dates in an Hour in The Olympic Village’ then updated to “The Other Olympic Sport In Rio: Swiping” before being taken down from the Daily Beast website after avalanche of complaints and criticism.
The social media outcry was swift and furious.
Imagine the one space you can feel safe, the one space you're able to be yourself, ruined by a straight person who thinks it's all a joke?
— Amini Fonua (@AminiFonua) August 11, 2016
Slate slammed the piece as “disgusting and irresponsible,” while author and gay rights activist Dan Savage called for the Olympics to revoke the reporter’s press credentials.
What had been a watershed moment for sexual diversity at the Olympics – 49 of the 10,500 athletes are publicly out, a record high for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender competitors – was replaced by concern for the safety of closeted LGBT athletes, particularly those who may have to return to homes made more dangerous by potential outings.
Responding to the backlash, Daily Beast editor John Avlon initially appended a note to a revised version, apologizing “for any upset the original version of this piece inspired” while supporting the article’s fundamental premise and approach.
“The concept for the piece was to see how dating and hook-up apps were being used in Rio by athletes,” Avlon wrote.
“Some readers have read Nico as mocking or sex-shaming those on Grindr. We do not feel he did this in any way. However, The Daily Beast understands that others may have interpreted the piece differently.”
In the eyes of Andrew M. Seaman, ethics committee chair at the Society of Professional Journalists, the story was “journalistic trash, unethical and dangerous,” as he wrote on Thursday at the SPJ ethics blog.
The Daily Beast pulled the article completely on Thursday night, replacing it with an editor’s note.
“We initially thought swift removal of any identifying characteristics and better clarification of our intent was the adequate way to address this,” read a subsequent editor’s note explaining the article’s deletion.
“Our initial reaction was that the entire removal of the piece was not necessary.”
“We were wrong. We’re sorry.”
The Daily Beast said the article didn’t live up to its values, such as “standing up to bullies and bigots, and specifically being a proudly, steadfastly supportive voice for LGBT people all over the world.”
Hines, whose Twitter account was bombarded with furious messages, declined to comment.
But the question still needs to be asked… what if the backlash was not so massive. Would the publication have stood by the story?
Thankfully the community would not allow any of that… and thats why this is a good thing.
The athletes community, the journalism community & the social media community did not allow the article to exist. They did not give plausible credit to the journalist & did not perpetuate any more unnecessary hate.
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