Larry Grard, the Maine Morning Sentinel reporter ousted from his job after a spat with the Human Rights Campaign, is suing his old employer saying his civil rights were violated in his termination. Upset over HRC claiming the state’s Question 1 “yes” vote (which kept gay marriage off the books there) was due to hatred, Grard emailed a nasty note to HRC, which the organization then forwarded to the newspaper, which fired him after 18 years. His wife, who wrote twice-monthly a column for the paper, was let go after Grard. Last year we heard some Christian groups, feeling bad for one of their own, were going to take up his cause. Last week, somebody (or Grard himself) did: he filed suit against Morning Sentinel‘s owner MaineToday Media, claiming a termination was too severe an action for an email he sent from his personal account.
Brian Miller
Sorry, dude. As a journalist, you have an obligation to be neutral in public on affairs of public debate. The moment you decided to take a public position on a controversial issue and advocate for that position (while simultaneously “reporting” on it), you decided to stop being a journalist and start being an activist.
Activism and objective, impartial journalism are mutually exclusive. Though I’m sure you’ve got a job as a “journalist” at some right-wing outlet.