Daily Beast publishes article that may have 'outed' Gay Athletes in Rio.

Discussion in 'Race, Religion, Science and Politics' started by ColumbusGuy, Aug 11, 2016.

  1. ColumbusGuy

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    This Daily Beast Grindr Stunt Is Sleazy, Dangerous, and Wildly Unethical

    On Thursday morning, the Daily Beast published an exceedingly gross and bizarre article by a straight, married male writer who lured in gay Olympians through hookup apps for no particular purpose. The entire piece is an astoundingly creepy exercise in Grindr-baiting, which involves a journalist accessing Grindr in an unlikely setting and … seeing what happens. But the Daily Beast piece, penned by Nico Hines, is a uniquely disgusting and irresponsible entry into the tired genre. Hines entices his (often closeted) subjects under false pretenses; effectively outs several closeted athletes who live in repressive countries; then writes about the whole thing in a tone of mocking yet lurid condescension. By 10:30 a.m. ET, the Daily Beast had, in response to criticism, edited out the most identifying details about closeted athletes—but that’s too little, too late.

    Hines begins by explaining that his entire assignment consisted of walking around the Olympic Village while using several hookup apps, hoping to learn whether “an Average Joe” can “join the bacchanalia.” He quickly abandons apps like Tinder, which are mostly used by straight people, for Grindr, which is for gay men: “No prizes for guessing that Grindr proved more of an instant hookup success than Bumble or Tinder,” he writes. Presumably, Hines awards “no prizes” because he believes gays are more promiscuous than straight people—a theme to which Hines often returns throughout his vile piece.

    Because Hines is not gay, you might find his use of Grindr a bit dishonest. But not to worry: “For the record,” Hines writes, “I didn’t lie to anyone or pretend to be someone I wasn’t—unless you count being on Grindr in the first place—since I’m straight, with a wife and child.” This sentence reflects a stunning amount of ignorance, because, in Hines’ situation, of course being on Grindr in the first place is a lie.Grindr is an app for men who wish to hook up with other men. That is its purpose! To be on Grindr when you do nothave that goal, and when you could not possibly have that goal because you are straight, is itself a mendacious deception.

    This misrepresentation might be excusable had Hines noted in his profile that he was a journalist on assignment. But naturally, he did not. Instead, he “confessed to being a journalist as soon as anyone asked who I was.” As soon as anyone asked who he was? Who asks that on Grindr? At the Olympics? In the Olympic Village? Hines seems to expect his marks to immediately divine that he is a straight journalist, and if they don’t, too bad for them. He also believes his targets have a fair chance of catching wise because he “used my own picture.” (“[J]ust of my face…” he adds coyly.)


    With his dubious premise established, Hines proceeds to out athlete after athlete, providing enough information about each Olympian he encounters for anyone with basic Google skills to uncover their identities. (After several minutes of Googling, I surmised the identities of five of the gay athletes Hines described.) I’m not going to repeat his descriptions, because—as Hines himself acknowledges!—some of them live in “notoriously homophobic” countries and remain closeted at home. Yes, the Daily Beast updated the article a few hours after publication to remove personally identifiable information (while insisting that outing gay athletes was “never our reporter’s intention.”) But really: Anyone who has heard of Grindr has also heard of the Wayback Machine. Nothing on the internet can be reliably deleted.

    Shortly after Hines’ article published, openly gay Olympian Gus Kenworthy tweeted that the author “basically just outed a bunch of athletes in his quest to write a shitty [Daily Beast] article where he admitted to entrapment.” That is correct, but it’s worth exploring why Hines embarked upon this weird, sleazy quest in the first place. I count two reasons. The first is that Hines simply enjoys tittering with condescension at all the gay athletes who take the bait and engage with him—a straight dude, as Hines emphatically reminds us.Why else zero in on Grindr? The second reason is more repulsive: Hines appears to take pleasure in luring in these Olympians then outing them to all the world.

    But the offensive purpose of Hines’ article is really the least of its problems. Far worse is the actual damage it will likely cause to real, live human beings—inevitable consequences that Hines blithely ignored. Several athletes who are closeted at home (and possibly to their own teammates) will wake up on Thursday morning to the news that the Daily Beast has outed them. Their teammates could ostracize and alienate them; their families could disown them; their countries could imprison them. And for what? A homophobic article about how a straight guy conned gay Olympians from anti-gay countries into hitting on him through Grindr? Hines’ article is a dangerous disaster, a wildly unethical train wreck that should be taken down immediately for the sake of its duped subjects. Hines may view his Grindr-baiting as all fun and games. For the victims of his unprincipled journalism, however, his nasty little piece has the power to ruin lives.

    This Daily Beast Grindr Stunt Is Sleazy, Dangerous, and Wildly Unethical
     
  2. BlackguyExecutive

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    This is absolute BULLSHIT!! Clearly this "reporter" must have been bored AF and the Daily Beast needed to fill its space with click bait. I say fuck him and the Daily Beast. I also think there should be a journalistic ethic investigation at minimum.

    [​IMG]

    P.S. Why are so called straight people so damn curious about what goes on in the Grindr app and the other gay hookup/dating apps? These MFs....
     
  3. OckyDub

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  4. Winston Smith

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    Yeah, the guy is a creep, scum, etc. The Daily Beast is known as one of those Gleck Beck type of "news" organizations, so it doesn't surprise me. The realpolitik, however, of this is that he does not appear to have broken laws prima facie, so any ethics actions (except from his employers) are not punishable or enforceable. The real world way to stop journalists is to go Peter Thiel on their asses and fuck them up real world style like Thiel did to Gawker.

    This is why, though I keep other people's confidences myself, I always tell them don't be on apps or websites if you're not prepared to be out and open at some point, or think you can truly be discreet or DL in the digital age. There are no true secrets anymore. Like people on Ashley Madison that thought they would never be found out. Really? As a military vet and public employee all my financial history and security question stuff is out on the Internet anyway, thanks to the govt IT incompetence.That's why I don't "code switch" on or off the Net. Any deception can easily be rooted out.

    Don't get me wrong, I don't think is a trivial matter. For outed athletes from certain countries, this could literally have life and death consequences for themselves, loved ones and families. Imagine being an Ugandan or Syrian track competitor and then have your name out out worldwide like this. But we live in an age where it's getting harder to keep secrets, so at some point, this should be every man's theme song:
     
    #4 Winston Smith, Aug 11, 2016
    Last edited: Aug 11, 2016
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  5. Lancer

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    I feel really bad for these Athletes that have been outed just so some basic heterosexual white man can get a cheque. Some of these Athletes are from homophobic countries with homosexuality punishable by some serious measure and I just can not imagine what will be going through their head now and how their lives have changed. Even though the article has been revised, even though I feel it should be taken down, the original was shared multiple times and any 11 year old can Google the Athletes and get their names and the countries there are from. Just absolutely deplorable journalism, and to what end!?! To show humans have sex!?!
     
  6. mojoreece

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    I dont get the point of why the dude did what he did. Its well know that all the athletes no matter gay, straight, bi, married or single have all kinds of sex (group/orgy, public sex, on the roof, in the bushes n on grass lol etc) at the Olympics. At the London Olympics both tinder and grinder stoped working because too many ppl were on it. So whats did the dude want to prove. This could also negatively effect athletes that come from conservative countries or if they have conservative sponsors/supporters.. Also some athletes are only out to close friends and family and don't wish ppl to be public out.
     
  7. Goodwin

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    I guess he has nothing else to write about. Rio supplies 450,000 condoms to athletes for a reason.
     
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  8. BlackguyExecutive

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    But really grinds my gears about this story every time I see it, is that they did this story for fun...it was a form of entertainment for Nico the "Reporter." Needless to say, the Gays have been trolling him and the daily beast ruthlessly since this story broke.
     
    #8 BlackguyExecutive, Aug 12, 2016
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2016
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  9. alton

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    I hope he gets his comeuppance by any means necessary.
     
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  10. ColumbusGuy

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    For what it is worth the Daily Beast pulled the story, and issued an apology saying it should never have done this and published the article in any form in the first place. Too bad they did not think about what they were doing publishing this crap in the first place. Horrible story, Worse idea to go ahead and run it in the first place.

    Apparently they were bombarded with a huge amount of criticism-hopefully other *journalists* take note.
     
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  11. alton

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    A day late and a dollar short. The damage is already done. This dude needs to be cornered in some back alley in Brasil and dealt with.
     
  12. jusrawb

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    How I see it a apology means nothing. He needs humiliation equal to or worse than he has caused. This is where the gay mafia IT department would hack his personal stuff and expose his dirty secrets, justice served.

    sidenote: I can only imagine the type of Olympian sex goes on during the Olympics haha
     
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