The censorious intolerance of the gay left is on display again -- a reporter was fired in Waterville, Maine. His offense? Sending an angry private e-mail to the Human Rights Campaign in Washington. The HRC wanted the reporter dismissed -- and bang, he was terminated.
Via the Romenesko media news site, I found Al Diamon of Downeast.com reported that Larry Grard was fired after 17 years at the Waterville Sentinel and 35 years in journalism:Grard was fired by Bill Thompson, editor of the Sentinel and its sister paper the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, shortly after the Nov. 3 election in which Maine voters repealed a same-sex marriage law approved by the Legislature. Grard said he arrived at work the morning after the vote to find an e-mailed press release from the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C., that blamed the outcome of the balloting on hatred of gays.
Grard, who said he'd gotten no sleep the night before, used his own e-mail to send a response. "They said the Yes-on-1 people were haters. I'm a Christian. I take offense at that," he said. "I e-mailed them back and said basically, `We're not the ones doing the hating. You're the ones doing the hating.'
"I sent the same message in his face he sent in mine."
Grard thought his response was anonymous, but it turned out to be anything but. One week later, he was summoned to Thompson's office. He was told that Trevor Thomas, deputy communications director of the Human Rights Campaign, had Googled his name, discovered he was a reporter, and was demanding Grard be fired. According to Grard, Thompson said, "There's no wiggle room."
He was immediately dismissed. Is this a new trend? Being Google-canned?
It didn't matter that Grard sent an e-mail privately. It didn't matter that Grard never covered the "gay marriage" initiative battle. He had taken offense at the HRC, and that was apparently grounds for firing. |