Fox is coming under fire for a segment on Joseph Stalin's vacation house that some deemed too light-hearted
- Fox Sports 1 aired a segment during the World Cup on Monday that toured Joseph Stalin's vacation house.
- The segment began, "Think what you will about Joseph Stalin," before showing Stalin's "dacha" which was designed to protect him from assassination attempts.
- Many people were critical of the segment for being too light-hearted about the former Soviet dictator.
Fox Sports 1 aired a segment during the World Cup on Monday that toured former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's vacation house, or "dacha," that many felt was too light-hearted.
"Think what you will about Joseph Stalin, but there's no denying this was one of the most formidable figures in human history," reporter Sergey Gordeev began the segment.
The two-and-a-half-minute segment, which was produced by National Geographic, went on to tour Stalin's home in Sochi, which was painted green to blend in with the surrounding forest, had no rugs so Stalin could hear anyone sneaking up on him, and had a bulletproof couch, where he used to watch Charlie Chaplin movies. The piece noted that Stalin lived in constant fear of assassination.
The segment included the anchor playing on Stalin's old pool table and going into his old office, which included a life-like replica of Stalin.
The segment immediately drew criticism around the internet. Deadspin ran a post with the headline, "Weird FS1 Segment: Say What You Will About Joseph Stalin, But He Had A Sick House."
Yahoo's post on the segment read: "It's hard to have a conversation about Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin without using the word 'murderer.' During his 30 years in power, he had hundreds of thousands of people executed while millions of others died in gulags or from famine. But during its World Cup coverage on Monday, Fox found a way to talk about Stalin and leave out all that murder and repression stuff."
Several Twitter users expressed confusion and frustration, too.
Fox Sports did not immediately respond to a statement request from Business Insider.
The entire segment can be seen here >