From purely a viewer's standpoint, this has been a fun Olympic Games. After having the U.S. broadcasting rights for years, NBC seems to finally have hit on the right formula for covering the Games (although I could stand fewer celebrity cameos in the stands). I'm getting to see just enough of the only-every-four-years events like fencing and handball, and not missing the important swimming and track and field preliminaries and finals.
Everything is just dandy until I log into social media. Uncredited social media posts have spread manufactured Olympic controversy like a plague that has resulted in global arguments with exactly zero facts.
If you have a computer, you know that the opening ceremonies, and two female boxers, one from Algeria and one from Taiwan, have generated their own culture wars on social media. At issue with the opening ceremonies is whether the artistic director and production team deliberately intended to spoof Leonardo da Vinci's iconic portrait of the Last Supper. The two boxers, who were born female, and compete as female, are being falsely accused of being transgender.
There is one legitimate news story I would call to your attention as background to this entire drama: European and U.S. intelligence agencies have confirmed Russian troll farms have been working for some months to broadcast misinformation in social media to undermine the French elections and the Olympics (from which Russia has been banned from competition). Why is this relevant? There's a very good likelihood that these emotionally compelling posts and memes that have popped up about the opening ceremonies and transgender sports, begging to be reposted, are coming from Russia.
I am not writing this without background or experience. The company I own and run does work helping the U.S. and other militaries respond to disinformation as part of the "hybrid threat" that our enemies present. The power of the internet is tremendous, and bad actors, including Russia, use it to soften resolve and create chaos wherever possible. One of the most basic hybrid disinformation tactics is fostering new arguments in the simmering culture wars.
In the case of the opening ceremonies, it's been very hard to find a smoking gun and very easy to find alleged casualties. Different tableaux were staged along the Seine River, and one such scene of a raucous banquet was later interpreted as a spoof or mockery of Leonardo Da Vinci's painting of the Last Supper, commemorating Christ's final meal with the Apostles.
I am a Catholic and familiar with the painting. In all honesty, I have no idea where anyone would make that connection. But this is only my opinion.
The major news media picked up and broadcast the story worldwide with very few facts but lots of emotion. The French Catholic bishops issued a statement of condemnation. The ceremony organizers issued a tepid apology ("we're sorry if anyone was offended…."). The bottom line is outraged people believe what they were told (from third parties) that the live tableau was allegedly about, and ceremony organizers have done little to explain the point of their director's art. Win number one for the propaganda trolls.
A week went by, and things seemed to calm down. This past weekend my social media feed blew up again over a pretty female Italian boxer supposedly in fear for her life over having to fight a man. Online histrionics ensued, and memes about two boxers, one from Algeria, who fought the Italian, and another from Taiwan, flooded the internet with anti-trans messages. This time, clear facts, not perceptions over artistic intent, followed.
As it turned out, the two women boxers (who are confirmed to be born women, who live as women, and who compete as women), had been banned last year by the International Boxing Association, after failing some test that the IBA will not disclose. The IBA, long the international governing body for boxing, is a dubious organization stripped of its Olympic credentials for the last two Olympics by the International Olympic Committee. The boxers had previously boxed for years for the IBA without incident.
The IBA bureaucracy is dominated by Russians and is led by an associate of Vladimir Putin's. IBA has been plagued for decades by judging scandals and disgraced by athlete doping. Nearly three dozen countries, including most Western nations, have left the IBA in the past year and formed World Boxing, in order to try to keep boxing in the Olympics past 2028. To participate in the Olympics, a sport must have an international governing body. In 2019, the IOC created an internal committee to regulate Olympic boxing through 2028.
For Imane Khelif, the Algerian boxer, the notion of her being transgender is categorically impossible. Transgenderism is illegal in Algeria. There is no way a transgender athlete could earn a spot on Algeria's national team.
As you read this column, I am not suggesting that you support transgender participation at the Olympics. I am not demanding that you agree that the opening ceremonies were delightful. I am telling you to stand up for truth and not allow yourself to be played by the Russians and their like. This isn't about free speech on the internet or sharing your views. That's largely what social media is about. What we all must stop is spreading propaganda from hostile nations.
When you share a controversial meme and you don't know where it came from, you might be letting the bad guys win another one. It's not that hard to see if there is any fact behind the story. The most reliable free source to fact check is the Associated Press. They even run weekly fact checks of the most shared fake news stories.
I have the belief that as outrage is contagious, so is calm. It would be refreshing to find out. I am very interested in your opinion. Russia's, less so.
Merritt Hamilton Allen is a PR executive and former Navy officer. She appeared regularly as a panelist on NM PBS and is a frequent guest on News Radio KKOB. A Republican for 36 years, she became an independent upon reading the 2024 Republican platform. She lives amicably with her Democratic husband north of I-40 where they run one head of dog, and two of cat. She can be reached at
