Fox News Editor Smacked for a Criticism of Olympics Diversity Dream Team

Yeah. Reach for the stars, Fox News.

The Fox News website was forced to take down an article Thursday for suggesting the goal of the U.S. Olympic Committee was to make the U.S. Olympic team, “darker, gayer, and different.”

And no, it wasn’t some random blogger. This was the executive editor of the site, John Moody.

In the column, which was published Thursday on Fox News’s website, Moody wrote, “Unless it’s changed overnight, the motto of the Olympics, since 1894, has been ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger.’ 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.”

UGH. So what’s your beef, Moody?

Oh, yeah. The Olympics committee apparently has a director of diversity and inclusion now, which is absolutely embarrassing.

The guy’s name is Jason Thompson (Yes, I just assumed his gender), and he made a loopy statement to the Washington Post on February 4 about the diversity of the 2018 roster, noting that this roster was “more diverse” than past rosters, but they still weren’t where they wanted to be.

“I think full-on inclusion has always been a priority of Team USA,” Thompson told the Post. “I think everybody’s always felt it should represent every American.”

I’m beginning to see Moody’s point.

Moody also scolded a USOC official for embracing the diversity of U.S. team, stating the official gave an “embarrassing laundry list of how many African-Americans, Asians and openly gay athletes” are on the American Olympic squad.

“No sport that we are aware of awards points — or medals — for skin color or sexual orientation,” Moody wrote.

I didn’t even see this list Moody is talking about, but it’s sounds exceedingly dumb, given that they don’t award participation trophies at the Olympics (They don’t, do they?).

Moody argued that Olympians should be chosen by merit and asked if the selections were based on “the best publicity” instead.

“While uncomfortable, the question probably needs to be asked: were our Olympians selected because they’re the best at what they do, or because they’re the best publicity for our current obsession with having one each from Column A, B and C?” Moody wrote.

“Sorry,” Moody wrote. “ ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’ still works better than ‘we win because we’re different.’ ”

He’s not wrong.

And I’d be interested in knowing how the athletes would feel if they found they were chosen to meet a quota, rather than based on their abilities.

Were more deserving athletes passed over because they failed to qualify for the diversity pre-trials?

In taking down Moody’s piece, Fox News seemed particularly sensitive to the notion that they were going to get smacked by social media and the social justice warriors of the world, overall.

“John Moody’s column does not reflect the views or values of FOX News and has been removed,” the spokesperson said in an email.

To add insult to injury, they also pretty much dumped on Moody, including his executive editor title.

“Moody’s title is a formality and he has not performed that function for several years. Editors were too deferential to him given his longevity at the network and as a result did not put the column through the proper vetting process, which is why it was taken down,” the source said.

Oh, yeah… that guy? He’s nobody. We just let him hang around. He takes out the trash and cleans up the break room. In exchange, we let him write a column, every now and again.

It’s kind of like my position with RedState.

Moody joined Fox News at its launch in 1996. He left in 2009 to lead a global wire service called Newscore, owned by what was once the Fox News parent company, News Corp.

He returned in 2012, when News Corp was absorbed by Fox News and began his reign of terror.

So out of 243 athletes with the U.S. Olympic team, the diversity lineup looks like this:

10 African Americans, 10 Asian Americans, the first African American long-track speedskater, an African American hockey player, and Adam Rippon, the first openly gay figure skater.

I mean, he’s not the first gay figure skater, right?

No idea.

Either way, I’m just going to say Moody wasn’t wrong, but he could have finessed that title a little bit.

The post Fox News Editor Smacked for a Criticism of Olympics Diversity Dream Team appeared first on RedState.