NBC News has been getting criticized for emphasizing the sexuality of “Jeopardy!” champion Mattea Roach in a Twitter post that calls the Canadian whiz kid a “lesbian tutor.”
What are the details?
Roach has been victorious in 17 consecutive games, amassing a grand prize total of $396,182 as of Wednesday, the New York Post reported.
NBC News on Monday tweeted its story on Roach and characterized her in the tweet’s text as a “23-year-old lesbian tutor from Toronto.”
While the headline of the NBC News story does much the same, calling Roach the “latest LGBTQ ‘Jeopardy!’ phenom,” the piece is actually part of the network’s “Out Life and Style” section as noted in a tiny block of text to the upper left of the story’s headline. So the story’s angle makes more sense on the NBC News website.
However, there’s no note in the Twitter post that the story on Roach is for an LBGTQ-focused department for NBC News, so some users of the social media platform were a bit annoyed by the “lesbian tutor” characterization in the tweet — such Chris Taylor, senior correspondent for Reuters, who asked, “Is her sexual orientation really relevant here?”
Others agreed:
- “I will so enjoy the day when posts highlighting someone’s sexuality are a thing of the past,” one commenter wrote. “What the hell does it have to do with the show or her profession? Mattea is doing awesome and making her home town and country proud! Let’s leave it at that!”
- “Coulda left the ‘lesbian’ part off,” another user said. “She doing great regardless of her sexuality.”
- “Why did you feel it important to mention that she’s a lesbian?” another commenter wondered. “Aren’t we past that by now?”
- Another user wrote, “[D]on’t know what her sexual orientation has to do with anything, or will you be describing the next big winner the same sort of way? 45 yr old straight man wins… 38 yr old single straight childless woman wins…”
Anything else?
As of Thursday afternoon, the NBC News tweet about Roach was still active, as was the headline above the NBC News story about her.
Here’s Roach in a Thursday interview with “Good Morning America” on her historic run of wins:
‘Jeopardy!’ champ Mattea Roach talks record-breaking run l GMA youtu.be