'There Are No Gays Here'
But Russia has not earned the schadenfreude that bubbles up each time another broken door knob or damaged park bench is discovered. Whatever doesn't fit into the narrative is forced in nonetheless.
My sympathies for guys like the mayor of Sochi are generally pretty limited. Anatoly Pakhomov is a member of the United Russia party that dominates the Kremlin -- the same political grouping that is ill-reputed among the general public as the "party of crooks and thieves." Shortly before the Olympics, Pakhomov gave an interview. "There are no gays here," is the quote that was quoted in the media around the world.
If Pakhomov did indeed say that, then he needs help, because it would be clear that he is suffering from an undiagnosed dementia that strikes only sporadically. How else could the mayor forget that he himself had spoken with the operator of a gay bar shortly before the interview took place? He had asked for the briefing as part of his preparations for an interview with a BBC journalist.
At city hall in Sochi, few believe there's a medical explanation for what happened. They claim Pakhomov's statements were taken out of context. The actual words used by Pakhomov were, "We don't have them in our city." The mayor now claims that what he actually meant were gay activists. Without trying to play down the extremely difficult situation for gays and lesbians in Russia, there is a significant difference.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/editorial-on-western-bashing-of-sochi-olympics-a-952638.htmlThe German state media did the same years ago during the Georgia war
The ARD Putin "censorship scandal"
by Martin Mon Sep 8th, 2008 at 03:46:23 PM EST
On 30 August, an interview by Thomas Roth with Vladimir Putin was broadcast by the ARD, the most important public television in Germany.
The reaction to the broadcast was the most feverish outrage in the small blogosphere of Germany which the country so far has seen, and even triggered a response from the mighty media giant.
...
The criticism here was of course, that the ARD cut away the most central argument, that Georgia, not Russia started the war. Later there were cuts when Putin suggests that the US gov told Georgia to attack Russia to support McCain in the election.
http://www.eurotrib.com/story/2008/9/8/154623/2554
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