Recently, an incredibly hate-filled, disgustingly offensive comment was posted on Facebook that was so blatantly based on an ignorant racist stereotype that it resulted in the person who posted the comment losing their job.
The person who posted the comment removed it, but only after a number of people who were offended by the comment expressed outrage, and that was what caught the attention of the person's employer and led to that person's dismissal.
This person's employer was one of the largest media corporations in the world, and this person's position was fairly influential, being a vice-president who represented the company in legal matters.
This is what that person posted on their Facebook account. It is their personal reaction to the Las Vegas Route 91 music festival shooting of Oct 1st:
Screen capture of comment made by Hayley Geftman-Gold that I lifted from Brandon Morse's Facebook page (made necessary because I do not have a Facebook page)
So, Hayley Geftman-Gold publicly exposes herself as an insensitive racist who believes:
1) It is okay for an employee of a major media corp. to use an
offensive slur ("Repugs") when referring to members of the
Republican party.
2) Country Music fans are most often Republicans
3) Republicans are gun toters
4) Gun Toten' Republican Country Music fans deserve to die
After reading her comments (and the comments from others who I will have to assume share her views), I searched the internet for reactions from the media pundits who usually post reactions to ignorant racist comments made by public personas.
With the exception of a Washington Post article written by Mary Hui (that features Hayley Geftman-Gold's mea culpa, as well as five or so paragraphs that use the tragedy to address the political battles regarding gun control), I couldn't find much.
Chirp freakin' chirp. One million five hundred and thirty thousand results on good ol' Google for "reaction to Hayley Geftman-Gold Facebook post" and barely a single word condemning her behavior from any of the major media outlets, and not much from the usually easily outraged social media users, either.
To be accurate, there are a large number of reactions from irritated or outraged conservative commentators on message boards and individual blogspots, but those are to be expected.
What I was looking for was the same level of condemnation (and frequently, vituperation) CNN, the Huffington Post, the Daily Beast, or any of the other large media outlets usually post when an undeniably racist comment is posted by a public figure.
But I could not find nary a one.
Which I find odd, because if you put "reaction to Terry Frei Facebook post", in the good ol' Google, you get one million, five hundred and sixty thousand results, the first three being from the Voice Media Group owned alternative weekly newspaper Westword, the Washington Post, and USA Today, followed by links to other major media outlets such as NBC news, the NY Post, the NY Daily News, the Sporting News, the Huffington Post, Breitbart, the UK's Daily Mail - hell, even Fox News.
All of them soundly condemning Mr Frei, some to the point of evisceration.
What was so hate-filled and disgustingly offensive that former four-time Colorado Sports Writer of the Year Terry Frei wrote (on Twitter, not Facebook) that not only cost him his job and his reputation, but resulted in a smearing of his character on various social media sites that was ugly beyond description?
On Sunday, May 28th 2017, Terry Frei posted the following on Twitter after Takuma Sato won the Indianapolis 500:
Is that tweet racist, or is it the honest reaction of a man who wrote a book entitled "Third Down And A War To Go", about his father's four years of military service in WWII, flying 67 unarmed missions in the Pacific Theater as a member of the 26th Photo Squadron?
For those that are not up on their history, 76 years ago the country of Japan declared war on the United States, and the Pacific Theater was the primary location of most major battles between the U.S. and Japan. Those battles took the lives of over 200,000 U.S. military personnel.
The uncomfortable feeling Mr Frei tweeted about should no doubt have been kept to himself, but it did not in anyway express a disregard for the person who had won the race or a disregard for that person's race, creed, color, etc., and it certainly did not advocate any form of ill-treatment of that person, and it certainly did not disregard the value of diversity in sports or society as a whole.
However, it was written by a white male, the importance of which the social media shite storm that followed made very clear.
For Mr. Frei was immediately labeled a racist white male conservative Republican on several left-leaning websites, which he is most definitely not (and which is as racist a stereotype as any stereotype can be, but there doesn't seem to be a big rush to point that out by anyone)
Mr Frei is as far from being a racist as any human could be, and is a lifelong liberal Democrat.
However, that apparently was of little interest to the haters.
Terry Frei was fired from his job a day after he posted that comment.
As Hayley Geftman-Gold was the day after she posted hers.
However, that's where the similarity of the reaction to their statements ends.
For Mr. Frei was also soundly condemned in the national and international press, and was roasted on social media for being uncomfortable that a citizen of a country that declared war on the U.S. 76 years ago, (which resulted in his father having to face death nearly everyday for four years and which I point out again, resulted in the deaths of over 200,000 American military personnel), wins an iconic American sporting event which takes place on Memorial Day weekend, the specific holiday on which America remembers and honors those who have fallen in defense of the country,
Sure, Hayley Geftman-Gold lost her job, but somehow she escaped criticism or condemnation from nearly all quarters.
What conclusions can be drawn here? Is it the blatantly obvious one, or is there something more subtle?
What could I possibly be missing...where is the usual hue and cry from the major media about this women's comment?
Is it because she is a lawyer and has threatened to sue for defamation? Is it because she was a fairly high-ranking member of the media and has the silent support of other fairly high-ranking members of the media?
Someone please explain to me why Mr. Frei was pilloried and Mrs Geftman-Gold has not been.
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