The Daily Beast has pulled an article about “hookup apps” at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and issued an apology to “gay” athletes who may have been compromised, as some may be from repressive nations where homosexual activity is not only frowned upon, but actively persecuted.
“The story was identified by Slate (and other outlets) as an example of ‘Grindr baiting,’ using the hookup app to lure gay Olympians,” pointed out the Poynter Institute.
The Beast had posted a story from Nico Hines, the organization’s London editor. He had used a “series of hookup apps in Rio to investigate rumors that the Olympic Village is an epicenter of casual sex,” the institute said.
Followup a backlash that included concerns raised for the safety of homosexual athletes from those repressive nations being “outed,” even inadvertently, Beast withdrew some identifying information from the story, then pulled the story down entirely.
“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,” the note said.
“As a newsroom, we succeed together and we fail together, and this was a failure on The Daily Beast as a whole, not a single individual. The article was not intended to do harm or degrade members of the LGBT community, but intent doesn’t matter, impact does.”
At the Wrap blog, the story was described as “a new low” for journalism.
“‘The Other Olympic Sport in Rio: Swiping,’ is the brainchild of straight, married writer Nico Hines, who thought outing Olympic athletes (some from ‘notoriously homophibic countries’) was somehow news,” the report said.
Vox warned of the possibility of outing “gay” athletes and in Slate, a commentary blasted it as “sleazy, dangerous and wildly unethical.”
Although the story was taken down, the Wrap quoted from it: “Perhaps the question most people have is: How do the rest of us get an invite? Can an Average Joe join the bacchanalia? After 60 minutes in the Olympic Village on Tuesday evening, I’m surprised to say that the answer is ‘yes.’ Armed with a range of dating and hookup apps – Bumble, Grindr, Jack’d and Tinder – your distinctly non-Olympian correspondent had scored three dates in the first hour.”
The Wrap noted, “Then, in his infinite wisdom, Hines decided to leave just enough clues so that anyone with an Internet connection could figure who these athletes are. We don’t add them to this story, but suffice it [to] say it didn’t take long for some to figure it out.”
The Beast’s initial response, citing its “mission … to fight for full equality and equal treatment for LGBT people around the world,” was to remove “all descriptions” of people.
“The concept for the piece was to see how dating and hookup apps were being used in Rio by athletes. It just so happened that Nico had many more responses on Grindr than apps that cater mostly to straight people, and so he wrote about that. Had he received straight invitations, he would have written about those. He never claimed to be anyone he was not, did not offer anything to anyone, and immediately admitted that he was a journalist whenever he was asked who he was,” Beast explained.
At Slate was this blast: “It’s super lame. But unfortunately, Hines piece was also incredibly dangerous. You see … many readers, especially LGBTQ ones – took the article to be a gross, unethical exercise in entrapment, in which gay and/or same-sex-desiring athletes – many closeted – were unknowingly corralled into a queer zoo exhibit and, in some cases, thereby outed and exposed to the threat of violence.”
The original included “height-and-weight measurements, events, and countries of origin” for respondents.
Slate continued, “One of the victims was identified in the original article as being from Kazakhstan, which is considered by LGBTQ advocacy groups to be hostile territory. If he’s outed there, he could be punished, whether in terms of work prospects, social exile, or by physical attack.”
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2016/08/12/daily-beast-yanks-article-after-outing-gay-olympians/
from WordPress https://toddmsiebert.wordpress.com/2016/08/12/daily-beast-yanks-article-after-outing-gay-olympians/
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