Posted on 12/07/2009 3:03:08 PM PST by Fido969
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Sentinel and its sister paper the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, shortly after the Nov. 3 election in which Maine voters repealed a same-sex marriage law approved by the Legislature.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.’
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.
The week after Grard was fired, he said, his wife, Lisa, who wrote a biweekly food column for the Sentinel as a freelancer, received an e-mail informing her that her work would no longer be needed.
What a complete bunch of crap. The gay mafia owns the media.
..This is America?!...
That’s what they keep telling us but I REALLY have been doubting it.
The rest didn’t post...
At least it is not the America I grew up in!
But who here hasn't sent an email to a leftie reporter complaining about bias, and gotten a rude response on their employer's email system? If you complained to their editor - would they have gotten fired, too?
If he used a work computer, email address or identified himself as an employee of the paper, they have every right to fire him.
No, lookng at this again - it says it was his PERSONAL email account.
It’s kind of like witch hunting, isn’t it?
Regardless of the fired reporter’s email, or its contents, that management also fired his wife is one of those “OH SH*T, OH DEAR!” moments, as management will no doubt be instructed by their lawyers.
The left can’t stand anyone pointing out the truth. The gay agenda is all about hate, and the people pushing it are at the forefront of libtard, hate mongering.
From the article:
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.
Doesn't sound like Tevor Thomas cared about any of the three 'possible' infractions you noted (i.e., he didn't factor them into his conclusion that Mr. Grard must be fired).
An investors group called Maine Media Investment is acquiring Blethen Maine Newspapers from parent The Seattle Times Company.
Purchase agreement between Blethen, Maine Media announced
Maine Media includes former Secretary of Defense and U.S. Sen. William S. Cohen and two longtime business associates, Robert Baldacci and Michael Liberty.
Good point!
“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.”
What happened to this guy is outrageous and frankly, chilling. There’s no doubt in my mind he was fired for his religious beliefs, or at least the fact that said beliefs offended an outside pressure group. The fact that his wife is suddenly “no longer needed” makes me doubly sure.
That said...I’m wondering if the company has some legal cover here. Grard sent the message on a private e-mail account, but it’s not clear if he used his own computer or one of the company’s to send it. From a moral perspective, it’s hair-splitting, but from a legal perspective, it might well make a difference.
When every living thing on the planet reminds you that life itself is based on heterosexual design, and your sex life revolves around areas that usually require toilet paper to clean, you would be hateful and vindictive too.
It was a personal email from his personal email address on his work computer in response to a press release sent to his professional email address.
The paper and the HRC will argue that he stepped over the line by sending a personal response to a professional communication.
Used to be.
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Maine is a dead state, has been for many years.
As far as the reporter goes —I don’t know why his firing would be a surprise.
* Newspaper reporters are a dying trade (yes, trade, it is not a profession, though they’ve been told it is). It is a skill that most people who had an education in secondary schools before 1970 can attain with training. No four expensive years of balderdash. It is a trade that has been destroyed by academia. Anybody believing journalism is a professional career has been snookered. Feel bad for your parents if they payed bucks to put you through the snookering.
* If the paper is privately owned or a owned by a private conglomerate, they have the privilege to hire and fire anybody they choose. So far the free-market system allows that — so far.
*(1) Don’t e-mail private opinions/concerns from work. (2) You work with imbeciles.
My comment is based on more than 25 years in the newspaper industry.
Good point! I guess it would be hard to see your life view point smashed at every turn!
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