Reporter Says All Her Female Colleagues Covering the Olympics are Getting Aggressively Invited Back to Guy's Rooms and They're Saving the Receipts
This is NFL on Fox reporter Laura Okmin. Who, I presume, is not in Tokyo covering the Olympics because NBC has exclusive rights, NFL training camps are in full swing, and there are precious few competitions at the Games that involve American football.
But it would appear Okmin is in touch with other women who are reporting from Tokyo. And according to the ones she's hearing from, those rules the IOC put in place telling everyone not to come in contact with others, to go back to your dorm or hotel room after your event, and by all means don't carry on the Olympic tradition of sharing your culture with folks from other nations by putting your body parts inside of their body parts? Well, it sounds like those are being treated the way us Massholes treat stop signs. Less like a law than like a suggestion.
Before I go on, I just want to clarify for the record, that last Tweet was not about me. I'm not so vain as to think it is. Nor do I promote anyone having dreams about clouds in their coffee. All of which begs the question: Who is she talking about?
It's natural to assume it's the athletes these women are there to cover. When you get the most athletic human beings on the planet in dozens of different disciplines together in once place after they've spent four years of their young lives throwing objects, lifting heavy things, moving really fast or perfecting flips, twists and jumps, it comes with certain expectations of commitment-free boning. It's an Olympic tradition unlike any other. Hell, when Pheidippides ran the 26.2 miles from Marathon to tell his fellow Athenians their side defeated the Persians in battle, he probably expected at least some hand action. And would've gotten more than that if he hadn't dropped dead on the spot. Yet here we are, 2,500 years later, and these athletes are being told these Games have to be run like a Christian Bible Camp. And they obviously are not complying. Even though the IOC said they can't pick up their complimentary condoms until they're on their way out the door, heading for the airport.
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But the key phrase in this Tweets seem to be Okmin quoting her friend saying the people in question who won't take NO for an answer "are above me." Which I take to mean it's her bosses? After Matt Lauer and ESPN settling a sexual harassment lawsuit and Fox News having to put out dozens of fires involving Bill O'Reilly and others, are higher ups at media companies really taking the moment of the most disease-ridden Olympics in history to remind us they think NO means something other than NO? Even with a virus going around and in a cultural environment where Andrew Cuomo went from America's sweetheart to a disgraced serial creeper who will probably be forced to resign in a matter of months. Damned, the Olympics makes people horny to the point they lose all sense of professionalism.
The fact is, we don't know who Laura Okmin's friends are telling her about. Somebody's over there using the business trip to offer up a "Whatever happens in Tokyo stays in Tokyo" pitch, the question is, "Who?" The women on trying to go back to their room in peace know. Okmin knows. And she sort of hints that they'll go public with the names sometime. And maybe after the closing ceremonies when the job is done, we'll know. Until then, we'll just have to stay tuned.