It’s the get of the day on the story of the day: ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos has netted the first TV interview with Jason Collins, the veteran NBA center who today became the first active player on a major U.S. sports team to announce that he is gay. The Good Morning America anchor will sit down with the free agent center from the Washington Wizards on Tuesday morning. The GMA interview then will go out on all ABC News platforms during the day. The timing is especially good for Disney-owned ABC in that the May sweep kicked in Thursday and the network is airing the NBA Playoffs along with ESPN, NBA TV and TNT. But there’s a headline-grabbing sidebar to the story for Disney. As the media began to digest the story and its repercussions, ESPN commentator Chris Broussard delivered some eyebrow-raising remarks when discussing the Collins matter on-air. “If you’re openly living that type of lifestyle, the Bible says you know them by their fruits, it says that that’s a sin,” he said. “If you’re openly living in unrepentant sin, whatever it may be, I believe that’s walking in open rebellion to God and Jesus Christ.” As the flashpoint story inevitably broadens in the coming days and weeks, it’ll be worth keeping an eye on how the various media outlets play it. Stay tuned.
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