John Moody leaves Fox less than a month after controversial Olympics column

Fox News executive John Moody has retired from the network less than a month after sparking major backlash over a column he wrote.

A spokesperson for the network confirmed the news to CNN on Thursday.

Last month, Moody penned a column on the Fox News website mocking the U.S. Olympic team for celebrating diversity.

{mosads}“Unless it’s changed overnight, the motto of the Olympics, since 1894, has been ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger,’” Moody wrote in the column. “It appears the U.S. Olympic Committee would like to change that to ‘Darker, Gayer, Different.’ If your goal is to win medals, that won’t work.”

Fox News removed the column the next day, saying it “does not reflect the views or values” of the network.

A source close to Moody told CNN that he had been planning to retire even before the controversy over the column.

Moody had been with the network since it began in 1996, excluding the three years he spent as CEO of News Corp’s NewsCore wire service.