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NBC on Mitcham’s stunning Olympic upset: We can’t cover everythingNBC also spared plenty of airtime for much smaller stories: the love triangle involving French and Italian swimmers, the volleyball player who lost her wedding ring, and countless shots of husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends all cheering on their loved ones. Especially compelling were shots of weeping, smiling and giddy athlete’s greeting their families after receiving their medals. All which was true of Matthew Mitcham.
Additionally, the network frequently covered events involving upsets or controversial victories, especially those concerning the United States and Olympic hosts China: the Japanese upsetting the U.S for the gold medal in softball, the U.S victory over Serbia in Men's waterpolo, the controversy surrounding the Chinese women gymnastics team .However , Mitcham’s shocking derailment of the Chinese diving juggernaut didn’t quite rate. Hughes is correct in that NBC didn’t tell the personal story of every single athlete. And it’s also true that NBC’s coverage focused more on American athletes. Despite that American-centric coverage, however, NBC’s hours and hours of coverage found room for other significant Olympic moments belonging to non-Americans: Usain Bolt’s world records, Rafael Nadal’s expected gold medal in tennis, as well as Zhou Luxim, the man Mitcham defeated for gold.
NBC sports is a news organization and reporting historical, groundbreaking moments is their job. Had Mitcham actually been the first black diver competing, and had he pulled off the same stunning achievement, NBC’s ignoring it would be considered a travesty at best. Questions would be raised as to either their skills as journalists -- or as to whether they are biased. So why didn’t NBC cover Mitcham’s story? Was NBC unaware that Mitcham was these games only out male athlete? Given NBC’s boasts about their thorough coverage, not knowing this about Mitcham would reflect poorly on the Peacock network’s reporting skills. Or perhaps gay athletes are so common that even a victory as stunning as Mitcham’s isn’t newsworthy? That is absurd, or course. Was Mitcham’s win simply not that noteworthy? Given that he single-handedly kept the Chinese from winning every men’s diving gold medal, that explanation is highly unlikely. Or did Mitcham’s sexual orientation play a part in the lack of coverage? It certainly seems a strong possibility. What Mitcham did is the single most notable achievement by an out gay male athlete at the Olympics and it was done in dramatic, compelling fashion. And he did it with a personal story that is unarguably at least as compelling as love triangles and lost weddings.
Unless you’re the Peacock Network, that is. Submitted by on Mon, 2008-08-25 14:50. |
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Some smart producer
is probably already hard at work putting together a film project based on Mitcham's story. I'd be surprised if Matt hasn't already been contacted by the folks at Regent Entertainment/Here! TV, as well as several other gay-inclusive indie filmmakers - and if he's a smart businessman, he'll sign on with the right deal. God knows an openly gay male athelete isn't going to get any major endorsement deals here in the U.S. I just hope the film turns out a bit less melodramatic than the Louganis biopic.
Now the big question - who should play Matt in the film?
Whoever plays him needs to look like Matthew
Recommended for your viewing pleasure
afhickman
"The mountain has wings."
Dgchgo, Jesse Spencer proved he can do it all (plus he's an Aussie) in "Swimming Upstream." He's chipmunk-cute as Matthew, and he needs to get out from under Hugh Laurie's shadow on "House"! I just hope he hasn't reached his sell-by date!
I could go for Jesse Spencer
Well, it would almost have to be...
..Ryan Phillipe.
Wouldn't it?
-Sibelius
"It's curtains for you, Dr. Horrible. Lacy, wafting curtains..."
I'd bet the farm that Hughes is a Log Cabinette
Thanks Bigot
I was enjoying this interesting story about how NBC slighted a community member... and then suddenly there was this pile of hatred stinking up the place. Other than your own personal bigotry and bile, is there any reason to think Hughes is a member of Log Cabin? Nope... just standard generic nastiness that can't even wait for a reason to explode all over and so has to make up some reason.
My jaw literally dropped on the floor...
What I don't get is.....
....why do these idiots think that discussing a straight person's husband/wife/family is just talking about them in general terms, but discussing a gay person's wife/husband/family is "discussing their sexual orientation".
What a load of crap.
I say we take the warning labels off everything and let nature take it's course.
The problem is straights think sex when they think of gay ppl
Society has them numb to the fact when you point to man and woman with kids they're really saying - He stuck his dick in her cooch and they popped out these creatures. Those ppl fuck each other.
When straight society mentions a gay couple they think they have to spelll it out...There's Matt's partner, Lachlan. They have anal sex.
It never occurs to them that a simple "There's Matt's partner of two years" is all we're asking for.
Olympic Smooch gallery via NBC
On NBC's front page, they have a link to the "Olympic Smooches". It shows many a husband & wife, and parent & child, but no Matthew and Lachlan. I can't say I'm surprised though.
Daily Kos had a few threads about the lack of Mitcham coverage from NBC too:
NBC censors gay Olympic history (4 UPDATES)E-mail J&J to thank them - reward good behavior :)
Olympic gold for LGBT athletes
...this is my first post :)
Education is a slow process
And it sometimes has to be done painstakingly, individually, and repeatedly. And there's backsliding and forgetfulness, so it has to be done over and over with the same people sometimes, until they have an "aha!" moment where they really get it.
Until Mr. Hughes's son or brother or wife or best friend or assistant comes out to him and shows him what a real live gay person or transgender person looks like, he may never get it. But members of our own tribe sometimes don't get it, either -- I've read posts in the last few days in which self-identified gay people said, "What business is it of ours who Matthew Mitcham sleeps with (or has sex with)?" What?! Who said anything about sleep? Who said anything about sex? It's about celebrating all the parts of a person's identity and acknowledging the people who are part of his life.
The fact that Matthew can be out to his diving community and they support him -- that's huge: they swarmed around him immediately after his win to be able to congratulate him and welcome him into the community of Olympic champions. I loved seeing that part of the video: Laura Wilkinson, the captain of the American diving team, giving him a big hug; Alex Despatie waiting his turn, touching Matthew's shoulder and not giving up until he has the chance to embrace him. Quite a difference from the shroud of secrecy (the ShamWow! of secrecy?) Greg Louganis had to live under when he was competing and winning his medals back in the '70s and '80s.
NBC is not going to change its system of emphasizing Americans at the Olympics -- they think it works for them -- and there will continue to be lazy commentators and producers who don't veer from the path or learn any more about the non-American competitors than they have to. But we, the openly LGBT community, have to keep after them -- and sometimes that just means living our lives and not being afraid to be who we are and not being afraid to call people on their b*llsh*t. And taking the time and effort to educate and change minds. And, little by little, person by person, we'll make some progress. Frustrating, and maddening -- but that's how it works.
Bravo! Everybody read the above post!
You said everything that I've been thinking, and said it so much better than I could! Thanks! We need to spread this message far and wide!
Check out my blog: http://radicalsexy.blogspot.com/
NBC's response is idiotic
Of course, NBC can't cover EVERY athlete, but you're not gonna tell me that everything they DID cover was substantive. I saw my share of pretty inane, time-wasting features. Mitcham upset the Chinese divers with the highest-scoring dive ever, and thus prevented the host country from a medal sweep. That alone is Olympic history. Isn't it ''compelling'' that Mitcham had quit the sport and fought depression and returned to win gold? Geez, if that's not a ''Rocky'' story, what the hell is? Not even the movies could make up this script. The fact that he's the first man to compete as an openly gay athlete at the Games is a bonus. NBC did a feature on Zhou Lexin, the Chinese diver who ''settled'' for silver and was the odds-on-fave to win; they also did a feature on David Boudia and Thomas Finchum - the two American divers who were never even in contention. But ... they skip any feature or even post-gold-medal-winning interview with the champion who actually WON the event. Insane!
Anyone here know Ellen DeGeneres? Can we at least get Mitcham booked on ''Ellen's'' show, so U.S. viewers can see what a real (and gay) Olympian looks like?
I am gonna say it...
if they didn't spend soooo much damn time on mr. phelps, maybe...just mayyybe some of the other athelete's could've gotten....oh, equal ''screen time'' should we say?? (i am not hating on michael phelps, but i did cringe at the crazy coverage he got)
i also wonder something else and maybe someone mentioned this before......but seeing as he is an aussie.....did the australian media give him a lot of coverage over his win???
Yes he was on almost
NO!
Not true here in South Australia.
Only a little picture hidden amongst other athletes in the middle of a two-page spread in our Sunday Mail and nothing at all in Monday's paper. :-(
I was really cross because I thought the win was outstanding, and nothing at all showed up in our papers. In fact, I was disappointed that I didn't see Matthew in the group of Gold Medal winners being welcomed home this morning ... not a sight of him.
Front page of Beijing paper, too?
NBC's "reponse" is
Gay Gold, no go. Gay scandal, never old
Well, it IS what we do here. What is really sad is that
the minute I first heard the news Saturday morning, this is exactly the place I expected this story would end up -- with NBC completely ignoring the news.
As someone says below, it's "understandable" why there was no real coverage of Matthew beforehand. He's Australiand and gay, two things American audiences aren't expected to care about. But the minute he pulled off that upset, the network should've realized they truly had a historical event on their hands. But I suspect that almost none of TPTB knew or cared Matthew was gay OR the only out Olympian at the games which is shoddy journalism on their part.
Their job is to know what are the potential newsworthy stories and, again as someone says below, all they had to do was google Matthew to find the info. But for whatever reason, NBC chose to ignore the story or failed to recognize it. Either way, they blew it.
"Understandable" lack of coverage on US television
The argument that because Matthew's Australian (and therefore less "newsworthy" on US media) makes me wonder. Do we know how the Australian press and media have covered Matthew's win? That might be worth exploring, Michael =)
I came across this opinion piece by Ryan Heath from the Australian newspaper The Age titled "A win for Australia - and for gay athletes everywhere." It's an interesting read, which can be found here:
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/a-win-for-australia--and-for-gay-athletes-everywhere-20080824-41au.html
Nope
As I mentioned above, there's been no coverage of Matthew's dive, or the fact that he's gay, here in South Australia that I've seen.
He was interviewed on the nationally shown Olympic shows live from Beijing, though. Haven't seen anything about him since. :-(
Where is GLAAD? Good question
I am pretty f*cking tired of people sitting back in their desk chairs (or their friendly neighborhood Starbucks) at their laptops typing "Where was GLAAD?" (Even when they spell the acronym correctly, which is rare enough.) If you're not fighting for equality, with your last breath, for LGBT persons (and I mean ALL of those letters, plus the Qs that mean the younger members of our tribe who claim queer and are questioning), for understanding, for changing hearts and minds of people who might be swayed from the hate-filled bile spewed by Don and Tim Wildmon and Fred Phelps and his progeny, then you have no right to ask others to do your dirty work for you.
Because of the work that GLAAD and its sister and brother organizations have done, we are able to witness the marriage of Portia and Ellen (on the cover of People magazine), the impending marriage of Brad and George, the TV union of Scotty and Kevin, the frequent and very casual and ordinary appearances that T.R. and Mark make on the street and at charity events, the career trajectory of Neil Patrick Harris, and the stunningly miraculous performance of Matthew Mitcham and his subsequent interview with his mother Vivienne and his partner Lachlan. Yes, we have work to do before we reach our goals of equality of gender identity and expression and sexual orientation. But those goals will not be achieved without a lot of hard work. If you're not doing it, you need to shut the f*ck up or get off your duff and do some of it.
Full disclosure: I am not a staff member of GLAAD, but I am a contributor and supporter of that organization and a beneficiary of and witness to its powerful and effective work. And I am sick unto death of reading people saying "Where is GLAAD?" instead of helping GLAAD and our other organizations achieve the goals we want them to achieve for us.
Total GLAAD shill, but thanks for posting
First, I'm not sure how YOU can sit on YOUR duff and assume that YOU know the first thing about anybody that posts on AE. Can you say you know how many hours I've put in walking the streets of CA promoting a no vote on Prop 8? Can you say you honestly know how much time anybody here on AE has put in? Hmmm? Can you say how much money and time I have donated to gay causes and organizations? Can you say you know what anybody here at AE has put in?
GLAAD, once a great organization, is now nothing more than a tool for Hollywood media...afraid to talk against the organizations and media outlets that fund them. Where were they when the gay community was upset about ATWT caving to the right on Nuke? Where are they when Mexican language radio stations slam the GLBT community? Ummm, have we already forgot their horrible handling of Mr. Washington? It's is sites like AE, Pam's Houseblend and others that we now rely on to light a fire under the worthless asses of GLAADs board.
GLAAD and HRC should be combined into one org at this point.
And fluff GLAAD all you want. It is the gay community that has taken us to the point of seeing Ellen and Portia get married. It's the gay community that has opened the doors to good television character. It's the gay community that has given gay actors the comfort level to walk in public.. And sorry...but it's years of practice and dedication that has made it possible for Matt Mitcham to stand on a podium and win gold. But it's the australian gay community that gave him the comfort to be out.
So I still ask...Where was GLAAD? Why is NBC able to say to AE "You're the first we're hearing of this..." GLAAD should have been on the phone when word reached the states that Matt won gold..."Hi, GLAAD here, I hope when you air this event in the evening hours you tell his whole story. We're watching. Thanks."
Shill....
Full disclosure: I am not a staff member of GLAAD, but I am a former contributor and supporter of that organization and a beneficiary of and witness to its past powerful and currently ineffective work. And I am sick to death of reading people defending GLAAD instead of holding GLAAD's and our other organization's feet to the fire and letting them ignore the goals we want them to achieve for us.
GLAAD is useless these days
As is so often the case with formerly activist organizations that eventually become "insiders" they seem to be largely unwilling to rock the boat nowadays. They're more about having gala ceremonies where the stars come out to shine. Why risk any of their relationships over something like this? Better to leave it the folks at AfterElton to pester NBC about it.
A truly proactive organization, knowing that we had exactly one out gay male athlete and less than a dozen out lesbians might have done some leg work with NBC up front to try and generate some attention. After all, it's not like there were large numbers of out athletes to be promoting.
But again, my sense is that GLAAD has gotten into the mindset where they prefer to hand out awards after the fact, rather than doing a lot of proactive work.
NBC's response is stupid but...
...I think that it mostly illustrates that they were caught with their pants down rather than this being an act of pre-planned malice.
I strongly suspect that homophobia was less an issue here than ethnocentrism. After all, it was fully expected that Zhou, not Mitcham, was going to win and the coverage still sucked.
What I think happened was simply that Diving is a sport that Americans have just sucked at in these Olympics (and the last ones) and that NBC's preference for American-centric coverage saw them not paying a lot of attention to this event. It was not really a surprise when the two kids on the American team placed far down the list (10th and 12th respectively) or that the Chinese were favored to pull a sweep, while America was going to be completely shut out of any Diving medals.
Since the whole thing was embarrassing for America more than anything else I think that NBC wasn't treating diving very seriously, as they generally treat sports that Americans fare poorly in.
That said, Mitcham's upset of what looked to be a clean sweep by China should have been big news. But that would have required calling attention to the low placing of the American kids. I think NBC just decided to show a low interest level for that reason.
The main fault here is that they are guilty of neglecting their gay audience. While Mom and Pop Middle America may not have been interested in seeing the U.S. get it's butt kicked in diving, gay audiences had exactly one out male athlete in the Games and we would have really liked to seen more coverage of him.
I think NBC just didn't even consider that, which is why their response to being questioned on it is so lame. It just never even occured to them.
Despite the rainbow that peacock is not all that gay-friendly.
No, you're wrong, it was homophobic.
Or more accurately heterosexism. The response was that they "do not discuss sexual orientation" proves it -- they are not aware that every time they show a wife or girlfriend they ARE showing sexual orientation. It's like those idiots who say "Hey, when is straight pride day?" -- it's every fucking day!
The treatment by NBC reminded me of when Ian McKellen was nominated for an Oscar. The cameras repeatedly showed him and the nice looking guy next to him, until it was apparent that that was his DATE -- then it was closeups of Sir Ian ONLY. Look at NBC's camera work -- a 2-shot of only Matthew and mom, except for the unavoidable time he refers to the guy standing NEXT to him. Subtle, but yes, homophobic and heterosexist.
No, you're wrong, it was homophobic.
Or more accurately heterosexism. The response was that they "do not discuss sexual orientation" proves it -- they are not aware that every time they show a wife or girlfriend they ARE showing sexual orientation. It's like those idiots who say "Hey, when is straight pride day?" -- it's every fucking day!
The treatment by NBC reminded me of when Ian McKellen was nominated for an Oscar. The cameras repeatedly showed him and the nice looking guy next to him, until it was apparent that that was his DATE -- then it was closeups of Sir Ian ONLY. Look at NBC's camera work -- a 2-shot of only Matthew and mom, except for the unavoidable time he refers to the guy standing NEXT to him. Subtle, but yes, homophobic and heterosexist.
Let's say NBC is telling the truth...
and they really couldn't devote time to pre-filming one of their over-produced profile pieces. They're very busy, no doubt. And Matthew may have looked like a non-US longshot before the games. And given is weak performance in earlier diving competitions at the Bejing Games, NBC probably didn't feel it needed to do any additional pre-production work prior to the beginning of the 3 meter platform competition.
BUT THEN -- and this is what makes the whole things reek -- Mitchem started executing beautiful dive after beautiful dive in the 3-meter platform competition. As a news producer, I would start to like do some internet research, maybe find out a bit about this person. Particularly, if I hadn't had time or interest to do anything of the sort prior to the 3-meter platform competition.
AND THEN HE FREAKIN' WON THE GOLD MEDAL! And still nobody from NBC jumped in to cover the story, do an interview or repackage the whole thing -- even as a late-night best-of type segment. And NBC did stuff like that during the entire run of the Games. At random times, they'd air a 5-minute recap of some rowing competition or condensed report on some archery.
I get that television news is ultimately a business. And I get that NBC is going to focus on what they believe will sell. But come on, this was a great story, great sport, and Mitchem is freakin' hot and wears a Speedo like nobody's business. Oh -- and he speaks English! He is so media-ready and compelling it hurts!
But there's a problem! Did we mention that he's gay, has a boyfriend, and isn't afraid to give his man a thrilling, celebratory kiss while the cameras roll? Oh, nevermind. His story suddenly isn't that interesting...
I'm fuming...
3m "springboard",not
3m "springboard",not platform ;)
I remember from early interviews Mitchem was focusing more on 10m platform since it`s his stronger point.
NBC has no excuses
I have a hard time believing NBC's excuses
when right before the diving finals, they showed 2+ hours of marathon coverage. The ENTIRE MARATHON! Holy crap was that boring coverage! I took a long nap and they were STILL running when I woke up. I backed up the DVR to make sure I didn't miss the diving competition. Nope! Still running! The entire 2+ hours! So finding time was not a plausible excuse.
And I have a hard time believing that of all the hundreds of NBC staff covering these Olympics, not one gay staffer/producer/cameraman/kraft-food-provider stopped and brought it to TPTB's attention that Mitcham is gay (not to mention the only out gay male athlete) and that this was a story worth telling, all to no avail and ultimate frustration.
To be fair to NBC, that night after it aired, I went to many of the Australian news sites, expecting to see Mitcham front & center with a huge picture clutching his gold medal. Nope! They were ALL splashing Bolt's picture and story on their front pages, with Mitcham's accomplishment a non-top-newsworthy link underneath. So, if NBC was homophobic with their coverage in Mitcham's case, then so were Mitcham's Australian news outlets.
Regarding Hughes's comments, I found them laughable. I would have respected much more a comment like "Yeah, you know what, we dropped the ball on that one." Instead, we got excuse making and defensive posturing. Reeks of guilt.
Not sure what Australian
Not sure what Australian media outlets you are talking about, but I found out about Mitcham's gold medal on news.com.au (the newspaper equivalent has the biggest readership in Sydney) BEFORE it was broadcast on television. They had a huge banner of him with his gold medal, and the article mentioned that he is gay. The other major online news website (the most read online news site) had the story up about half and hour later. Believe me, I know, I was checking. This was at about 11:30pm at night here. So he wasn't ignored in Aus, nor was they fact that he is gay. In fact, in every single article or video clip I've seen of him, it's been mentioned (sometimes awkwardly, sometimes not).
I think the Australian media has far less of an issue with Mitcham's homosexuality than NBC does.
This came from a "spokesman" from NBC? It seems more like
Did NBC run straight to the legal eagles without crossing Go/the marketing folks? You'd think that NBC would have more resources than the show runners on ATWT, but based on this interview it looks like they will do anything to "defend" rather than use the opportunity to re-frame and do damage control. That is their job. The court of public opinion not a lawsuit. Imagine how upset they would have been if Michael had not been the first person
bullshitto bring this to their attention? Then things could have gotten ugly...Was the exclusion based on homophobia? I can't say, BUT it's hard to argue that there might not be an element in the mix as the Olympics ended without any mention of this story. Diving is not a boring event and it's quite beautiful to watch on TV irrespectively of a US presence. While the US coverage need not be democratic, ignoring the good stuff is bad business. When bad business wins in a genre that is all about business, one has to wonder why there was selective disclosure about how truly historical the full picture made that evening.
With regard to not being able to cover every single athlete, it's such a "legal" and smart-alecky answer.
While Matthew was not THE favorite to take the gold in this event, he was in the top 3 in the world and took first place at a competition that took place shortly before the Olympics. Matthew is telegenic, speaks English, comes from a country that the US loves, had a great story and would have been a natural if he'd "only" been in contention for lesser medal.
Even if NBC did not have ANY profile footage already prepared, they could have easily shown/referred to his partner and mother during the coverage, and with technological advances could have put together within minutes.
They chose to ignore this story the day it happened and unless I am missing key information, the Games closed with the same arrogance and excuses exemplified by the NBC spokesperson.
This from the network that aired Passions and, like the rest of the pack, wants all stakeholders to buy that they want to be inclusive. Let's not forget James Hillis' brilliant report on the state of television. The smarter mouth pieces kept saying that it was about getting the right stories and some spoke of these periodic meetings about inclusion of gay men in their line-up.
Talk about a universal story without the need for a script. They can't blame the awesome Paris Barclay for not writing something broad enough for everyone, such as Deal or No Deal.
If NBC had any imagination or desire to stop coming in last place for yet another year, it should use these opportunities to at least make more money on their investment. How about a 3 hour best of the Olympics this week, this time with the inclusion of Matthew's story? How about a Dateline interview? A sure ratings winner just as the fall season is about to take off.
NBC should take a lesson in win/win opportunism from ABC is it already cast the annoying Misty May-Treanor in Dancing with the hasbeens. Even Lance Bass was brought to the party, which skews older than any other ABC show. The people at ABC could not be faulted for trying to do right by their shareholders. I still won't watch that show, but their attitude is seems to reflect smart business by not worrying about ruffling the feathers of its core older viewers, by possibly bring new life to a show that might stagnate if it does not evolve, and might even get them more cash if they can skew younger.
I really hope that Ellen gets to Matthew quickly and that he also gets to chat with Barbara Walters (if only on The View) and might even score a top 10 reading on David Letterman on the 10 reasons why NBC pretended that Matthew's historic gold medal win had no relevance. If only Letterman was still working the "GE/NBC is so cheap" angle this could be hilarious....
It's his time and our time. I want to congratulate Michael J. on getting this interview, turning it around so fast, and with such authority. I always give him a hard time as I'd like to see this site challenge the status quo hitting a little harder but always fairly. Color me impressed.
Guillermo's Media Guillotine: Entertainment, journalism, politics, and popular culture.
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NBC is full of it but then again I'm not surprised
There may be pressure for the network that covers 2012 Olympics
One can but hope
In an ideal world Matthew's triumph in coming out, going to Beijing and then going home with gold hanging from his neck would inspire other closeted gay athletes to come out. We'll just have to see if his heroic example is followed by others.
BTW: Which U.S. diver?
Psionycx
I really hope that Mitcham becomes something of a celebrated figure. It would prove that coming out to these athletes is not only risk-free, but actually may pave a road to a higher celebrity status of sorts.
Psionycx, to answer your question: Finchum. The bells were already ringing when I first saw him walking the diving board during the synchronized diving competition. Then NBC showed an interview piece with him, and the alarms kicked into overdrive. heh. Granted though, I have the worst gaydar in history. But I'd be shocked if he wasn't gay. Boudia also rang some bells, but not as much.
The American diving bfs
Dane, you think your gaydar went off? No kidding! I'll be very interested to watch those two guys as they reveal themselves in the future. It may be that one of them is gay; maybe both of them are; maybe neither. Maybe bf for them means "best friends," maybe "boyfriends." We'll just have to see.
Something that occurred to me as I watched Finchum and Boudia in the finals was that there was a lot of psychological stuff at work that made them drop to 10th and 12th place. Sure, Thomas Finchum sprouted 10 inches (wow!) in the last year; but the physical changes in him did not account for all the less-than-stellar dives that he and his bf performed in the last competition. I'm looking forward to seeing what goes on with them as they go their separate ways to college and (perhaps) continue to compete between now and 2012.
NBC already has 2010 and 2012
Sadly, NBC has already purchased the rights to the 2010 games in Vancouver and the 2012 games in London.
ABC/ESPN is going to make an aggressive bid for 2014 and 2016, but so will the other networks. Currently the only network I trust to be gay inclusive is ABC.
Local Coverage
There has been some good local coverage, online and in the Sydney papers, but the televised coverage here is Australia was pathetic. They showed 3 of the six rounds of the finals, and then only showed the last round in full with all divers. They showed the medal ceremony and a brief interview, but there was no mention of his boyfriend or footage that I saw.
The papers happily mentioned his full story, that he was out, his boyfriend was with him, lovely half page pic of there in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, as well as the cover shot of him diving. And the Daily Telegraph Olympic site showed the video of him being interviewed with his mother and Lachlan, so the continuing coverage after the TV has been fairly good, at least here in NSW.
Personally, it's the most memorable event I've ever witnessed at the Olympics, and I've been eagerly following up all stories after the fact. Thank you very much for posting the video of his full set of dives, and the footage of him climbing to Lachlan, it was magic!
See these links for online Australian coverage:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/performer-of-the-week/performer-of-the-week/2008/08/25/1219516371872.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/diving/outandout-champion-celebrates/2008/08/24/1219516264750.html
More Matthew Mitcham video
I was all prepared to give NBC the benefit of the doubt that they were merely incompetent rather than deliberately biased against spotlighting an openly gay athlete but the responses given by their spokesman are simply insulting to anyone with a brain cell.
Anyway, I've found media coverage of Matthew Mitcham elsewhere.
Everyone has probably already seen the press scrum interview of Matthew with his mom and partner Lachlan, but in case you haven't, here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2PWW8uBhik
Press conference clip courtesy of Reuters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU6A3o5FRvE
Beijing Now clip from same post-win press conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpGGx56mK3E
Australia's Channel 7 interview of Matthew (part of Heroes of Beijing):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TB-jw4g_IU
Matthew talks about his plans for 2012 in this interview outside the Water Cube. This clip probably takes place shortly after the press conference.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic4FfQpjp_s
Interview of Matthew for CBC's French-Canadian channel, conducted in French! Pretty impressive, Matt!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5HywI_CR38
Sponsor AussieBum's somewhat prophetic interview of Matthew prior to the Olympics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT_e1SJ1iPo
Matthew can also speak a
Striking thing about Mitcham in the clips
Matthew repeatedly snuggles up to Lachlan in the videos shot outside the Water Cube. He's not at all self-conscious about it or the fact that there's a camera pointed at them. There's no embarrassment or shame and he clearly doesn't care who sees it. This is about as out as one can possibly be.
All the more reason to love him.
TV Guide weighs in
afhickman
"The mountain has wings." Congratulations to the Olympics blogger at TV Guide (Rich Sands), who reported the following: Australia’s Matthew Mitcham spoiled China’s diving party, winning gold in the men’s platform and preventing the home team from sweeping all eight events. The 20-year-old Mitcham, was “the epitome of poise,” according to NBC’s Cynthia Potter, nailing his final dive to come from behind and upset Zhuo Luxin. Mitcham, a Perez Hilton favorite, is one of the few openly gay athletes who competed at these Games.
Now what's all this about Perez Hilton?
Yeah,Afterelton favourite or
Ugh, Perez.
To associate the classy Matthew Mitcham with the thoroughly classless Perez Hilton just turns my stomach. Why did they need to mention him?
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I thought the same thing, Joe
Oh gawd