Fox News has removed a controversial column penned by executive editor John Moody about diversity in the Olympics because it did not go through the “proper vetting process,” a Fox News insider told TPM Friday.
The column, titled “Darker, Gayer, Different,” slammed the U.S. Olympics for its efforts to attract a diverse group of athletes for the Winter Games.
“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,” Moody wrote Wednesday in the since-deleted column.
“Complaining that every team isn’t a rainbow of political correctness defeats the purpose of sports, which is competition,” he continued, according to Media Matters. “At the Olympic level, not everyone is a winner. Not everyone gets a little plastic trophy to take home.”
A Fox News spokesperson told TPM that the column was removed because it “does not reflect the views or values” of the network.
An insider at the network told TPM the column did not go through the “proper vetting process” before it was published.
“In terms of John Moody, he has zero editorial oversight on any platform, his title is a formality and he hasn’t performed that function for years,” the source told TPM. “Editors were too deferential given his longevity and they didn’t give (the column) much oversight. … That’s why it was removed.”
The column sparked outrage among LGBT and civil rights groups, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Moody has been with Fox News since 1996 and is currently the executive vice president and executive editor.
