Fox Pulls Column Calling the U.S. Olympic Team ‘Darker, Gayer, Different’

Fox News has deleted a column in which executive editor and executive vice president John Moody wrote that the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) apparently wants to change the Olympic motto from “swifter, higher, stronger” to “darker, gayer, different.”

Moody’s column, which was published Wednesday, attracted widespread outrage online after outlets including Deadspin wrote about its contents. By Friday, the op-ed had been removed from Fox’s website, with a spokesperson saying it did not reflect Fox News’ views or values, the Associated Press reports.

Moody’s column was apparently prompted by a USOC official providing an “embarrassing laundry list of how many African-Americans, Asians and openly gay athletes are on the team” while discussing the diversity of this year’s athletes, AP writes. Moody used the column to argue that sports should be about merit and competition, not political correctness.

“Insisting that sports bow to political correctness by assigning teams quotas for race, religion or sexuality is like saying that professional basketball goals will be worth four points if achieved by a minority in that sport – white guys, for instance – instead of the two or three points awarded to black players, who make up 81 percent of the NBA. Any plans to fix that disparity? Didn’t think so,” Moody’s column read, according to an excerpt published by Deadspin.