“It’s pretty tough for anyone to say something that cuts through all [the] nasty noise” of the Trump administration with something worse, said Anderson Cooper on Monday night.
But FOX News VP was the subject of Anderson’s well-deserved ‘Ridiculist’ wrath for a column he wrote which appeared on FOX News’ website and has since been removed.
Wrote Moody in the column, to refresh your memory:
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.
A USOC official was quoted this week expressing pride (what else?) about taking the most diverse U.S. squad ever to the Winter Olympics. That was followed by a, frankly, embarrassing laundry list of how many African-Americans, Asians and openly gay athletes are on this year’s U.S. team. No sport that we are aware of awards points – or medals – for skin color or sexual orientation.
For the current USOC, a dream team should look more like the general population. So, 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?
“Why is he clutching his pearls in fear and outrage over Team USA?”, asked Cooper. “Well it turns out that of over 244 athletes on the team, two of them had the courage to say openly and proudly that they’re gay. And as for the darker part of Mr. Moody’s Olympic fever dream? 10.”
Added Cooper: “First of all, darker, gayer, different is a terrible motto for the Olympics. It’s not a bad motto for a gay bar, I’ll give you that, but I’ll just assume those aren’t Mr. Moody’s favorite watering holes. Apparently Mr. Moody likes his Winter Olympics like he likes his orthodontia – straight, white, and all the same.”
Anderson went on: “Does this guy seriously have so little to do that he’s sitting around worrying that people who have no athletic ability get put on an Olympic team just because they’re gay or African American? And does it strike anyone else as hugely inappropriate that a guy who’s apparently high up at a news organization is upset about another organization striving for diversity?”
And finally, Anderson wondered what the hell he’s doing at a “news” organization: “Moody’s comments might be funny if he was just a crank standing out on the street corner on Sixth Avenue outside Fox & Friends trying to get his sign on camera with a sign saying ‘darker, gayer, different’…but he is actually inside the building in a top position…I don’t know exactly what he does. It doesn’t sound like he does much – but as a gay man, if I was working under him, I sure would not feel all that welcome.”
