Ryan Lochte’s Puzzling Media Treatment

Ryan+Lochte+on+the+Set+of+Dancing+With+the+Stars+%0A%28Photo+via+Ryan+Lochte+Twitter+Page%29

Ryan Lochte on the Set of Dancing With the Stars (Photo via Ryan Lochte Twitter Page)

Sean Browne, Editor in Chief

The 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil will surely be a memorable one for the United States. America’s performance was truly memorable; The United States won the most gold, silver and bronze medals, due in part to athletes such as Michael Phelps, who won five gold medals which made him the most successful Olympic athlete ever, and Simone Biles’ breathtaking gymnastics performance.

Now that the games are over you would think that Americans would be talking about the excellence of our own athletes, but unfortunately that is not the case.

The biggest headline from the summer games is Ryan Lochte and fellow simmers lying on the Today Show about being robbed at gun point in a Rio gas station, when they actually vandalized the bathroom at said gas station.

Now you would hope that our country would hold Lochte responsible for devising such a stupid plan and then lying about it. In truth, Lochte has faced his fair share of criticism such as Speedo and Ralph Lauren ending their endorsement deals with Lochte, and he has been vilified by the media.

But according to Entertainment Weekly and USA Today Ryan Lochte will appear on ABC’s 23rd season of Dancing with the Stars, which begs the question as to why Lochte?

ABC could have picked any other celebrity that they wanted to, but they choose a man who urinated on a bathroom floor and then lied about it. Forgive me if I’m wrong but isn’t ABC apart of Disney? A media conglomerate that prides itself on being “family first?” I find it puzzling that he was considered an option.

If Disney feels that Lochte deserves a second chance then he should at least be doing something like community service or teaching swim lessons to kids, not dancing on live TV.

By doing this Disney is showing kids that it is ‘okay’ to break the law and lie about it. Disney should set the standard, not reward such reckless behavior.

For a media company whose main viewers are kids, it really is a terrible example that Disney is setting.