“We regret that we missed the opportunity to tell Matthew Mitcham’s story. We apologize for this unintentional omission.”
The statement comes after an NBC spokesperson defended the network’s decision not to mention it.
Zenkel’s response was pretty short and
sweet, but is this case closed? They blew it and acknowledged such
(after, as I said, defending the decision).
Does Zenkel mean what he says? We’ll see. Couldn’t they make good by
doing a story on Mitcham on one of their news or talk shows? That would
ceratinly show a deep acknowledgment that they messed up.
The real test will come the next time they’re faced with such an
opportunity. Do the commentators mention next time that the athlete
they’re reporting on is gay? And now, at what point does NBC or any
other media company feel the responsibility to mention someone’s
sexuality? I can’t imagine that the softball or soccer commentators
mentioned the sexual orientation of lesbian players out there (there
were three out American lesbians between the two sports). But on the
flip side, I haven’t heard anyone getting up in arms about it. I wonder why.

By Cyd Zeigler jr.