Yahoo fires reporter after comment about Romney

[Dave]

Another bit of stupidity from another moron that thinks he's the greatest reporter ever. Too many people on either side of the aisle say stupid things and really get what they deserve when they get canned. Its like this guy has no idea to what goes into putting together a big event like this type of convention. It would be nearly impossible to reschedule this type of event so close to the date of the actual event. Just the fact that for many of the delegates attending it would been very costly in trying to get their flights changed and hotel reservations changed, rental cars reservations changed and so on. For the people putting on the convention it would include having to change the catering, security and a 100 other things within the space of about a week. The truth is that if it was the democratic convention, they would of done the same thing. And as someone mentioned on a message board.. Obama was out campaigning through all this so is that really anything different? The concept of the guys comment was pretty silly to begin with when he mentioned about 'black people drowning'. Seriously, the only person to blame is the person that decided they were going to ride out the storm regardless of if they were black, white or any color... personal responsibility is what that comes down to, if you were dumb enough to stay and drowned then its on them, no one else.

Tensions between Republicans and members of the news media continue: Yahoo! News fired its political director Wednesday morning after he was heard in a video commenting that Mitt and Ann Romney "are happy to have a party with black people drowning'' – an apparent reference to Hurricane Isaac's damage potential.

David Chalian, the online news site's political director, made the remark in a short video on YouTube that appeared to be a test of a Yahoo!-ABC News online news program. The two news organizations have partnered to provide live-streamed coverage of the two conventions.

A report in Politico says Yahoo! fired Chalian immediately and, in a statement, said that his comment was "inappropriate" and that the news organization had apologized to the Romney campaign.

Chalian was fired just three hours after Newsbusters, a conservative media watchdog site, posted the video on its blog – and noted that the Republican Party had canceled the first night of its convention in deference to the approach of the storm. Chalian is a longtime political journalist who has also worked for PBS NewsHour and as political director for ABC News.

On Tuesday night, two people attending the convention were ejected from the hall: they had been taunting an African-American camerawoman working for CNN by throwing nuts and saying "This is how we feed the animals.'' Some Twitter users cast the episode as a racial slur.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2012/08/yah...

[Brian Carlson]

I support freedom of speech. True that what this guy said is stupid, and I do not agree with his statement. Sometimes we have to accept things people say to preserve rights for all citizens.

[Dave]

True, we have the freedom of speech but there is a certain responsibility that comes with that freedom. When we say things that will be controversial, you must be willing to accept whatever happens because of what you said. Going back to the 00's, most of us probably remember a member of the Dixie Chicks making a comment about Bush and that there was a backlash to that comment... it effectively killed their career as a band. Album that had come out prior to the comment sold over 10 million units... album that comes out after, barely sold 2 million and I don't even know if they bothered to release another album after that. If I say something dumb at work and get fired, its on me, not on my employer.

[Brian Carlson]

I agree with you Dave. We can say what we want to say, but we do have to accept the outcome. As much as I disagreed with the Dixie Chicks, I supported their right to say what they had to say. I also supported the people who boycotted their concerts and stopped buying their albums. I support the Chick-fil-a guy. I start to draw the line with the Westboro Baptist Church protesting at the funerals for the military. Those people are over the top.

[snide]

Once again we from two sides of the aisle can agree....What happened to the Dixie Chicks was awful! Watch the film "Shut Up and sing".(if you can find a copy).......It will take you to a whole new place...Toby Keith and Larry the Cable guy were total slimeballs and effectivly helped suppress the films' distribution. we all have a right to talk,as well as live with the results....Unfortunetly, FREE SPEECH isn't FREE. Even right here in Ludington.

[Willy]

I listened to the video and his comments were clearly not for the ears of the public to hear. But that's not what got him fired because after all it was only his opinion that was mistakenly recorded and everyone is entitled to their opinion.  What I think got him fired is the fact that Yahoo discovered that their Political Director does not have an impartial bone in his body and that someone in his position should look at political situation with some sort of open mind. He clearly demonstrated his complete anti bias toward Romney and no political news agency that serves such a large audience is going to survive when folks know that the person running that operation will not give both sides a reasonable chance to get their stories out to the public. Yahoo knew that if they did not fire him they would loose most of their conservative audience.

[XLFD]

What has me applauding the decision by yahoo news is that the statement's underpinnings is clearly racist in nature.  People may forgive a political bias, right or left, in their journalists, but when you couple it with saying that black people are somehow the only ones that will be drowning in a hurricane, you obviously are making a generalization about the whole black race. 

Sadly, such racism is often overlooked if your overall bend is liberal.  It shouldn't be.