THIS » Fox News Doesn’t Think Olympic Gold Medalist Gabby Douglas Is Patriotic Enough
RESPONSE » ”What’s especially crazy about all this is that after Gabby Douglas won the gold medal in the women’s gymnastics all-around, she stood waving up at the crowd clad in a red, white, and blue jacket with USA written on the back. Later during the medal ceremony she wore a gray jacket with an American flag patch on the shoulder, stood atop the podium, and listened to “The Star-Spangled Banner” as an American flag was hoisted up above her. Even if that weren’t all true David Webb’s commentary would be nonsense, but the fact that it is all true adds to the comic ambivalence about factual accuracy that characterizes so much of what people say on Fox News. What other enterprise would turn Olympic gold for America into an opportunity to make Americans anxious and upset about allegedly waning patriotism? It’s a poisonous approach to news.” – Conor Friedersdorf – The Atlantic
ANOTHER » “Really? Gabby Douglas, the 16-year old African-American gold-medalist who beat out competitors from other countries isn’t a flagrant example of American exceptionalism because she and her team wore hot pink instead of draping themselves in a flag? What about the fact that she hadn’t seen her father in two years because he was serving his country in Afghanistan? He showed up to cheer her on literally waving an American flag. Is that patriotic enough for FOX News and the Tea Party?” — stfusexists
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(Below: annaetc – Gabrielle Douglas captures gold in the women’s gymnastics all-around competition. She becomes the first African-American woman to win this title and the first American woman to capture gold in both individual and team events in the same Olympics.)
