/ Trash (Straight) Journalism at the Daily Shit
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.
Today we did not uphold a deep set of The Daily Beast’s values. These values—which include standing up to bullies and bigots, and specifically being a proudly, steadfastly supportive voice for LGBT people all over the world—are core to our commitment to journalism and to our commitment to serving our readers.
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. Our hope is that removing an article that is in conflict with both our values and what we aspire to as journalists will demonstrate how seriously we take our error.
We were wrong. We will do better.
The Daily Beast: A note from the editors.
After scrolling through the grid of gold medals and six-packs that is Grindr in Rio right now, straight Daily Beast reporter Nico Hines learned something that left him dumbstruck: gay male Olympians want to have sex with other gay male Olympians. Hines filed an 800-word article on his discovery, and it is a breathlessly written account of someone who appears to think gay sex is as mysterious as the prehistoric origins of Tilda Swinton.
Gleefully filed to ‘MUSCULAR ATHLETE FOR MEETS,’ “The Other Olympic Sport in Rio: Swiping” strives to be a revealing look at gay male sexuality in the bottomless (in a sense) pit of endorphins known as Olympic Village, but has the anthropological value of an episode of Bananas In Pajamas, and offers a discomfortingly awestruck glimpse into the world of gay sex that would seem homophobic if it weren’t so fucking stupid.
(Note: Several hours after its publication early Thursday morning, The Daily Beast’s EIC John Avlon added a statement to the post apologizing for its offensive content, adding that they “responding to readers’ concerns” by making “some editorial changes to the article.” Even with the edits, it is still very bad.)
Jezebel: Straight Daily Beast Reporter Fascinated By Men Who Fuck Men.
Queerty: “Everyone’s pissed at this straight journalist who used Grindr to out gay athletes in Rio.”