“This kind of reporting is simply unacceptable.” ~International Olympic Committee spokesperson told Outsports.
The 43 out Olympians set a record this year. Sadly, the LGBT headlines have centered around the disgusting headline “Daily Beast Outs Olympians on Grindr: Sleazy, Dangerous, and Wildly Unethical.” There were further developments over the weekend. By Jim Buzinski at Outsports has the latest as the IOC address the controversy for the first time yesterday.
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The International Olympic Committee has condemned as “simply unacceptable” a since-deleted story on the Daily Beast where a straight reporter posed as gay on Grindr to do a feature on sex at the Olympics. The IOC indicated in an email to Outsports that the writer, Nico Hines, is no longer in Rio.”
The Daily Beat did delete the article and replaced it an apology on Friday:
Today, The Daily Beast took an unprecedented but necessary step: We are removing an article from our site, “The Other Olympic Sport In Rio: Swiping.”
The Daily Beast does not do this lightly. As shared in our editor’s note earlier today, we initially thought swift removal of any identifying characteristics and better clarification of our intent was the adequate way to address this. Our initial reaction was that the entire removal of the piece was not necessary. We were wrong. We’re sorry. And we apologize to the athletes who may have been inadvertently compromised by our story.
[UPDATED: Friday, August 12]
Noted and out journalist Matt Baume walked us through the long, painful journey to marriage equality. Between Trump’s attending a hate conference yesterday and this Daily Beast dangerous debacle, his always insightful perspective is as important as ever.
[Original Post: July 11]
As Mark Joseph Stern writes in Slate,
“The entire piece is an astoundingly creepy exercise in Grindr-baiting, which involves a journalist accessing Grindr in an unlikely setting and … seeing what happens. But the Daily Beast piece, penned by Nico Hines, is a uniquely disgusting and irresponsible entry into the tired genre.”
@NicoHines You fucking disgust me. Do you realize how many people's lives you just ruined without any good reason but clickbait journalism?
— Amini Fonua (@AminiFonua) August 11, 2016
2016 out Olympian Amini Fonua is livid.
So @NicoHines basically just outed a bunch of athletes in his quest to write a shitty @thedailybeast article where he admitted to entrapment
— Gus Kenworthy (@guskenworthy) August 11, 2016
Gus Kenworthy isn’t happy.
Neither is Mic.com or Pink News or Salon or Vox. As the day goes on, this list is likely to grow exponentially.
Read @mjs_DC on that snide, gay-mocking, gay-baiting, maybe gay-life wrecking bit @NicoHines did for @thedailybeast: https://t.co/HXJD2WlZRs
— Tabatha Southey (@TabathaSouthey) August 11, 2016
Asshole journalist @NicoHines decides to "out" athletes at rio olympics using a gay App. Don't forget friends. What comes around goes around
— Diego Sans (@RB_DiegoSans) August 11, 2016
Stern ends his article with this:
Hines’ article is a dangerous disaster, a wildly unethical train wreck that should be taken down immediately for the sake of its duped subjects. Hines may view his Grindr-baiting as all fun and games. For the victims of his unprincipled journalism, however, his nasty little piece has the power to ruin lives.
The Daily Beast sure lives up to its name. This is what how they are trying to walk it back:
This was never our reporter’s intention, of course. No names were ever used and some of the profiles described were of straight women. But there was a concern that even mentioning the home nation of some gay athletes could compromise their safety. As a result, we have removed all descriptions of the men and women’s profiles that we previously described.
Over 200 #Olympic athletes could be killed by their governments if they came out as #LGBT. #principle6 @AthleteAlly pic.twitter.com/wK3pCaynQl
— Hudson Taylor (@hudsonism) August 11, 2016
Words matter, Nico Hines. Words matter.
fire him and his editor’charge him and the editor and charge the newspaper.
I wouldn,t line my bird cage with this rag. big time hate crime.
Fire him and chaege him
Second update should read that The Daily Beast has removed the article completely and replaced it with an apology.
It’s just all so tacky.
who cares what Gus Kenworthy says anyway. he’s just a fame whore.
THANK YOU!