Should NBC Make Rachel Maddow Its Human Rights Correspondent For The Olympics?

A new change.org petition is urging NBC to appoint MSNBC news host Rachel Maddow as Human Rights Correspondent for their Olympics coverage this February. The petition, addressed to the CEO of NBC Sports Group, Mark Lazarus, is a project of Truth Wins Out, a group dedicated to discrediting right wing misinformation and educating America about the LGBT community. They call adding Rachel to the NBC Olympic team a “no-brainer”.

Lazarus has been noncommittal about NBC’s plans to address Russia’s new anti-gay “propaganda” law which makes it a crime to so much as wave a rainbow flag or say a favorable word about being gay. In answer to questions at a Television Critics Association Press Tour, he took a wait and see attitude, saying, “We’ll address it at the time because it’s still unfolding.” Lazarus suggested, most would say optimistically, that “The IOC has addressed it with the Russian government and has assured athletes, fans and media that there won’t be any issues.”

Not so sure there won’t be “any issues” is the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) which has sent a letter to NBC urging them not to ignore Russia’s human rights abuses during their coverage of the Sochi Olympics. Lazarus has promised they would not be “swept under the rug” but had no concrete plan to offer. Now Truth Wins Out joins the HRC in pressuring NBC to step up its game and designate Rachel as its dedicated Human Rights Reporter.


(2013-08-07/thenewcivilrightsmovement)