A newspaper reporter in Maine has been fired from the Morning Sentinel newspaper in the town of Waterville after it was revealed that he sent an angry email from his personal account attacking LGBT leaders who blamed the recent defeat of same-sex marriage in the state on Gay-haters.
Indeed, reporter Larry Grand concedes he sent an anonymous email to the Human Rights Campaign saying it was actually the Gay rights group who are spreading hatred and not Maine-staters.
Grand, who said he’d gotten no sleep the night before, used his own e-mail to send a response to an HRC release lamenting homophobia in the Iron State. “They said the Yes-on-1 people were haters. I’m a Christian. I take offense at that,” he said. “I e-mailed them back and said basically, ‘We’re not the ones doing the hating. You’re the ones doing the hating.’
“I sent the same message in his face he sent in mine.”
Grand thought the message he’d sent was anonymous — but it turns out that the folks over at HRC were able to do some crafty detective work and sussed out his identity.
Apparently, Trevor Thomas, a director at HRC, Googled Grand’s name, realized he was a report and demanded that the paper fire him — and now Grand has been canned.
And so has his wife — a freelance food columnist now told her services are no longer required.
Unsurprisingly, Grand is peeved — and says he is the victim of anti-Christian bias. He has taken his case to the local Portland Newspaper Guild which is “defending (Grand’s) contract”.
In other words, they’re fighting his dismissal.
Grand’s paper editorialized in favor of same-sex marriage — even though Grand himself did not cover the topic.
Although Grand says perhaps the paper is correct in penalizing him for his actions — but insists firing is…well…beyond beyond.
What do you think.
Should Grand have been fired for his email to the HRC. And should the HRC be Googling folks who with countering opinions?
This is a murky one.