The reporter who hit ‘send’

[Ian David]

Friday, April 9, 2010
The reporter who hit ‘send’
Posted by Bobby

Let me take you back to the morning after the election last fall when Maine voters overturned that state’s same-sex marriage law. You’re a veteran newspaper reporter named Larry Grard. You’re a Christian. You work for the Morning Sentinel, part of a chain of papers owned by MaineToday Media. Your company editorialized in support of same-sex marriage, but you disagree.

You show up at work that post-election Wednesday — apparently after sleeping very little — and your fuse is a little short. Maybe a whole lot short. Your crank up your e-mail, and a news release from the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay rights organization, is waiting. You read this statement, and it offends you:

“Although we lost our battle in Maine, we will not allow the lies and hate — the foundation on which our opponents built their campaign — to break our spirits. We are on the right side of history and we will continue this fight,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.

How do you respond? Remember, you chose a profession where you’re supposed to keep your opinion to yourself. Particularly on the job. But … this really nags at you. So, you log into a personal e-mail account and fire up a response. You hit the send button on this message:

“Who are the hateful, venom-spewing ones? Hint: Not the Yes on 1 crowd. You hateful people have been spreading nothing but vitriol since this campaign began. Good riddance!”

Your boss finds out about the e-mail. You’re fired. And before long, you’re making national news, claiming you’re the victim of religious discrimination. But your boss insists that the firing was not about same-sex marriage or religious discrimination, but rather a serious breach of the company’s employee and journalistic expectations.

More:
http://www.getreligion.org/?p=30598

Hat-tip to: http://twitter.com/GayMarriage/status/11882594595


Good riddance to Larry Grard.

See also:

Reporter fired for gay marriage taunt blames ‘anti-Christian bias’
http://rawstory.com/2009/2009/12/maine-reporter-fired-calling-gay-rights-campaign-hateful-job/

MaineToday Responds to Reporter's Firing
http://www.downeast.com/media-mutt/2009/december/mainetoday-media-reporters

See prior thread:

Maine reporter fights firing for anti-gay marriage note
Thu Dec-10-09 11:02 AM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7198280

[Toasterlad]

1. Fuck Him.

[sui generis]

2. Well if he was being paid to be a pundit

then he should not have been fired. Unfortunately he was paid to be a credentialed journalist, which holds him to an entirely different standard of neutrality, and even if he doesn't believe so, it holds his publisher to a level of at least objectivity. Without those, the organization loses credibility, regardless of personal belief to either side.

He did indeed violate the company's employee and journalistic expectations. Nobody fired him for having an opinion. He got his ass canned for sharing that opinion using company equipment and did not differentiate himself as as NOT representative of the company's opinion.

Tell the twit to go work for Faux news and get the hell over it.

[RetiredTrotskyite]

3. No Tears For This Twit.

Aren't these fundamentalist types supposed to be glad to suffer for Jesus? I just find it interesting that when the opportunity is offered, they get all whiny and complain that they are being persecuted.

I get so tired of these idiots. They pull crap like this then whine when they get in trouble for it.