{"id":1418014,"date":"2022-04-04T12:59:34","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T16:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1418014"},"modified":"2022-04-04T12:59:37","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T16:59:37","slug":"wmal-fires-conservative-commentator-amber-athey-over-joke-about-vp-harris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wmal-fires-conservative-commentator-amber-athey-over-joke-about-vp-harris\/","title":{"rendered":"WMAL Fires Conservative Commentator Amber Athey Over Joke About VP Harris"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwmal-fires-conservative-commentator-amber-athey-over-joke-about-vp-harris%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1418014&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>I am no stranger to cancel culture \u2014 or what we know more commonly (and accurately, in my opinion) as censorship.<\/p>\n<p>When I was one of a handful of conservatives on a liberal college campus, my peers on the left reported me to our resident advisor for \u201ccreating an unsafe environment\u201d and demanded the administration step in to cancel speaker events I hosted through the College Republicans. They later would ask the university to revoke my degree. Throughout my six years as a political journalist and commentator, left-wing activists have tried every trick in the book to drive me out of the industry: digging up <a href=\"https:\/\/spectatorworld.com\/topic\/left-real-cause-muzzling-opponents-media-matters\/\">old tweets<\/a>, demeaning my appearance and harassing my employers.<\/p>\n<p>None of it has worked\u2026 until now.<\/p>\n<p>About a month ago today, I posted a tweet during the State of the Union address poking fun at Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019s outfit. Harris wore a chocolate brown business suit that was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelist.com\/784828\/kamala-harris-state-of-the-union-ensemble-had-americans-scratching-their-heads\/\">panned<\/a> on social media \u2014 some users compared her to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nickiswift.com\/784832\/kamala-harris-state-of-the-union-ensemble-has-everyone-saying-the-same-thing\/\">Hershey\u2019s chocolate bar<\/a>, while others wondered why she wore the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/kamala-harriss-state-of-the-union-suit-deemed-a-fashion-faux-pas\">same color<\/a> as her chair. I went for a UPS joke, featuring the company\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seattletimes.com\/business\/ups-retires-what-can-brown-do-for-you-slogan\/\">now retired<\/a> slogan:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKamala looks like a UPS employee \u2014 what can brown do for you? Nothing good, apparently.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Kamala looks like a UPS employee \u2014 what can brown do for you? Nothing good, apparently.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Amber Athey (@amber_athey) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/amber_athey\/status\/1498850679477227528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 2, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>No one had a problem with the tweet until a few days later, when I spoke critically of protests in favor of \u201ctrans kids\u201d at the University of North Texas. A group of maniacal left-wing activists who want to chemically castrate children in the name of \u201cgender affirmation\u201d came after me. All of a sudden, the Kamala tweet was being <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stevanzetti\/status\/1499971516347387904\">re-framed<\/a> as racist and dozens of Twitter accounts were bragging about contacting my employers about my \u201cbigotry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I have <a href=\"https:\/\/spectatorworld.com\/topic\/left-real-cause-muzzling-opponents-media-matters\/\">written<\/a> about these dishonest smear campaigns in the past. The people who engage in them do not actually care about stamping out racism, or transphobia, or whatever. They only use those labels because they know they are powerful tools for silencing their opponents.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been lucky enough to work for <em>The Spectator, <\/em>a magazine that understands and <a href=\"https:\/\/spectatorworld.com\/magazine\/february-2020\/\">fights against<\/a>\u00a0censorship,\u00a0for the past two years. They laughed at and promptly deleted the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/amber_athey\/status\/1500201524852666378\">angry emails<\/a> about my Kamala tweet.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, this wasn\u2019t the case for my radio station, WMAL.<\/p>\n<p>I was officially hired at WMAL, which is owned by Cumulus Media, this past fall as one of three female co-hosts of <em>O\u2019Connor &#038; Company<\/em>, the morning drive radio program.<\/p>\n<p>On March 9, I co-hosted the show alongside my friend Larry O\u2019Connor, just like I normally do on Wednesday mornings. It had been nearly a week since the social media meltdown over my Kamala tweet, and none of us at the show had a feeling that anything was amiss.<\/p>\n<p>Later that afternoon, just before 4 p.m., I received a call out of the blue from Jeff Boden, the vice president of Cumulus Washington, D.C, and Kriston Fancellas, the vice president of Human Resources.<\/p>\n<p>They told me that the tweet I sent about Kamala was \u201cracist\u201d and that subsequent follow-ups defending myself and making fun of the efforts to cancel me were unacceptable. I had violated the company\u2019s social media policy, they said, and I was terminated effective immediately.<\/p>\n<p>They did not have the courtesy to offer me an opportunity to defend myself, nor did they speak to anyone at the program before handing down their decision.<\/p>\n<p>Despite multiple appeals, during which company officials admitted that the perception of racism was more important than whether or not my tweet was actually racist, the company has refused to reverse its decision. Meanwhile, my image and bio is still being used on the WMAL website and social media channels to promote their programming. I am racist enough not to be paid, but not so racist that my likeness cannot be affiliated with the station, apparently.<\/p>\n<div class=\"banner_small conntent-banner\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/spectatorworld.com\/subscribe-the-dc-diary\/\"><noscript><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-29949\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/email-newsletter-mob.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n<p>All I wanted was my job back, but now I feel obligated to speak publicly about what has happened. This incident has destroyed the integrity and reputation of WMAL and Cumulus as hosts of conservative content. We spoke frequently about the dangers of censorship and cancel culture on our program, and yet here they are bowing to the mob.\u00a0If I can be fired for making fun of the vice president\u2019s outfit, every single host on a Cumulus station is in danger of losing their job at a moment\u2019s notice. Political commentary is worthless if it can\u2019t be used to speak truth to those in power without fear of professional consequences.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d like to thank my friends at <em>O\u2019Connor &#038; Company<\/em> and the other WMAL program hosts who have spoken up on my behalf to the company executives. It\u2019s unfortunate that despite being a key part of the company\u2019s success, Cumulus did not respect them enough to take their opinions into serious consideration.<\/p>\n<p>I feel the only appropriate action now is for conservatives to flood the same <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cumulusmedia.com\/about-us\/contact-us\/\">generic contact form<\/a> that was used to fire me. Tag <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CumulusMedia\">Cumulus<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WMALDC\">WMAL<\/a> on Twitter and let them know what you think of their spineless decision-making.<\/p>\n<p>I am sick and tired of conservatives apologizing to the left, staying quiet because they\u2019re afraid of burning bridges, or complaining incessantly without taking action. We will only defeat the left\u2019s bad faith attempts at censorship if we fight back.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"tve_leads_end_content\"><\/span>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am no stranger to cancel culture \u2014 or what we know more commonly (and accurately, in my opinion) as censorship. When I was one of a handful of conservatives<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1418014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1418014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1418014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1418014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1418014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}