NBC Doesn't Say Diver Matthew Mitcham Is Gay, Accused of 'Journalistic Incompetence'

Matthew Mitcham was the only openly gay man competing at the Beijing Olympics, and when he won a gold medal in platform diving he became a big part of NBC's Saturday night coverage.

But NBC, while telling us plenty about Mitcham, never got around to saying anything about his sexual orientation. Jim Buzinski of Outsports has a problem with that.

Buzinski writes:

You had an openly gay male athlete competing, which NBC's website admits is rare. You had the only non-Chinese diver to win a gold medal, doing it with a near-perfect dive, making viewers wanting to know more about this person. It would have taken one of NBC's two diving commentators, Ted Robinson and Cynthia Potter, all of 10 seconds to mention that Mitcham is gay. You can bet they would have mentioned had he been the first Muslim diver with a medal chance or the first Mongolian. I am not yet ready to accuse NBC of homophobia, since we don't know exactly why its commentators and producers whiffed on mentioning Mitcham's orientation. But I will accuse them of journalistic incompetence.

I agree. It isn't NBC's job to give us private details of athletes' sex lives, but that's not what anyone is asking for here. It is NBC's job to give us a complete picture of the athletes as people, and when there's something interesting about their romantic lives and personal relationships, that's part of the picture.

Just as NBC told us many times that American runner Sanya Richards is engaged to the New York Giants' Aaron Ross, NBC should have mentioned Mitcham's partner, because his partner is an important part of who he is. NBC dropped the ball.