Are America's Olympic uniforms insufficiently patriotic?

(Image credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

The video: While the rest of the country was celebrating Gabby Douglas' gold medal in the individual all-round event in women's gymnastics, a grumpy Fox News was homing in on Team USA's sartorial choices. (Watch video below.) On "America Live," guest host Alisyn Camerota bemoaned the replacement of the "famous flag-styled outfits" of U.S. gymnastic teams of yore with Douglas' pink leotards and gray track suit — not the sort of outfits, it seems, that get crowds chanting "USA!" "What's wrong with showing some pride?" responded Camerota's guest, David Webb, a Tea Party-aligned radio host. "What we're seeing is this kind of soft anti-American feeling that Americans can't show our exceptionalism." Webb went on to assert that the U.S. used to be a "very nationalistic nation," but over time has lost "that jingoistic feeling."

The reaction: "Newsflash for Webb. Isn't [athletic prowess] the best way to show 'American exceptionalism' at the Olympics...?" says Ellen at NewsHounds. Most people would agree "that the most unpatriotic thing about this story is Fox News' choice to nitpick uniform choices and cheering styles instead of celebrating American wins," says Jenee Desmond-Harris at The Root. And a tip for Webb: The U.S. may want to avoid "being jingoistic," says Conor Friedersdorf at The Atlantic, "a word that means, via Merriam-Webster, 'extreme chauvinism or nationalism marked especially by a belligerent foreign policy.'"