Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Anti Muslim tweet gets Brietbart editor fired



Breitbart editor has lost her job

A Breitbart editor has lost her job after she posted anti-Muslim tweets following the London terror attack.

The editor, Katie McHugh, said in a tweet Monday that “Breitbart News fired me for telling the truth about Islam and Muslim immigration.”

McHugh, who previously worked at The Daily Caller, was censured for a tweet Saturday, in which she wrote "there would be no deadly terror attacks in the U.K. if Muslims didn't live there."

She farther inflamed critics by getting involved in a twitter spat with actor Pej Vahdat.

"You're a real moron," Vahdat responded to her tweet about Muslims.

"You're an Indian," replied McHugh, to which Vahdat responded saying that his ethnicity was in fact Iranian-American.

After getting fired, McHugh posted a link to a fundraising page set up for her on fringe right-wing site WeSearchr, for donations to cover her living expenses during her unemployment.

McHugh, however, was unapologetic, saying:

“Breitbart News fired an editor for speaking frankly about Islam and Muslim immigration. If there were no Muslims in London, there would be no Muslim terror attacks, period,” she wrote in a statement posted on the site.

“I said nothing wrong. As President Donald Trump says, if we don’t get smart, it will only get worse.”

Breitbart editor has lost her job

 McHugh’s colleagues at Breitbart characterized her remarks as “appalling," "terrible," and "dumb" to CNN.

McHugh has written hundreds of articles for the site since joining it  in 2015.

Breitbart supported Donald Trump’s “Muslim ban” and anti-immigration policies during the presidential election campaign, and in August, the website’s CEO Steve Bannon was hired by Trump as his campaign director. He was appointed as Trump’s chief strategist after Trump took office.

The site has been described by Bannon as a “platform” for the alt-right, a movement of white nationalists and anti-establishment conservatives.

Firing a writer for proclaiming anti-Muslim beliefs might appear out of character for Breitbart News, which has often stood by its writers mobbed by criticism from the left on free-speech grounds, judging them to be victims of political correctness.

However, the controversial writers of the site frequently make news themselves. In February, Breitbart writer and alt-right controversialist Milo Yiannopoulos resigned after making comments, which defended pedophilia.

The news site, which experienced a spike in traffic in the run-up to the presidential election, has sought to compete directly with more mainstream publications. In January, Brietbart hired John Carney, an experienced reporter from The Wall Street Journal to head its finance and economics section.

Although denied congressional press credentials in April, the news organization is accredited by the White House.

McHugh asked for comment from Charles Johnson, who formerly worked at Breitbart News. He questioned why Ms. McHugh had been targeted.

“Why was she singled out for criticism or punishment when Milo Yiannopoulos and others said far worse things and yet retained their jobs?” Johnson said.

Although Breitbart has been portrayed as a leader of the far right, its decision to fire McHugh was criticized by some prominent conservative commentators on Monday.

“Breitbart fired a journalist to appease fake news media,” Mike Cernovich tweeted.

“Whatever the reason for firing, Katie McHugh is a great reporter,” Ann Coulter tweeted.

A Breitbart editor has lost her job

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