On January 29, Steve Walsh, a reporter with Missourinet, tweeted "Osama Bin Laden formally joins the American Left ... buying into global warming and blaming the U.S." Shortly thereafter, Fired Up Missouri ran a blog post about this tweet and then this post was picked up by Media Matters.
I have several problems with this tweet, like I don't like to be compared to a terrorist just because I hold a common scientifically proved belief. This would be like someone in the 1940s writing Hilter formally joins FDR in believing the earth is round.
My biggest problem with this tweet was that Walsh's twitter account was SteveMonet. (Steve Missourinet) Also his twitter profile picture was the same picture on the Missourinet website. (I wish I had taken a screenshot of this. Both his twitter account and his profile on Missourinet website have been taken down.)
During the weekend, I thought about if I should respond. I came to the conclusion that if a liberal reporter said something along the same lines about the Right, I believe that the news agency would be flooded with emails and phone calls from angry people. I decided to send an email, on Monday I sent the following email to his then-employer Missourinet:
Hi,
I am disturbed by Steve Walsh's tweet on Friday: Osama Bin Laden formally joins the American Left ... buying into global warming and blaming the U.S.
So terrorists side with the American Left according to him. It is outrageous and I question his objective for news reporting with such thoughts. I hope he isn't using MissouriNet computers to spread his hateful messages.
I hope Missouri Net will distance themselves from this comment!
On February 2nd he was fired from his job.
I have read a couple responses of people who were sad to see him fired, like this one from a conservative blog Principally Political:
Whether his comment (which humorously revealed similarities in political positions held by Osama Bin Laden and some liberals in this country) was appropriate for a journalist to make on his own time, on his own dime, is an appropriate topic of discussion.
Was it really on his own time? With his handle and having the same picture, he effectively linked his twitter account to his work and vice versa. If it was his own personal twitter account, why does it not exist anymore? Maybe the question we should be asking: Why wasn't he more careful about his public comments connected to his work?
Principally Political goes on to claim Walsh's was a stand up guy:
There are journalists who may personally be liberal or conservative but who report the news independently and fairly, and also those of both stripes who may allow their own biases to shape their coverage. Whatever his private viewpoints, I believe Walsh was one of the straight shooters in Missouri political journalism and that’s why I’m sad to see him go. I wish him the best.
Maybe this was true at some point in Walsh's career, but at least not in his last week of his job.
A couple days before his infamous tweet, he wrote a short blog piece on the unofficial Missourinet blog (If it is unofficial, why link to it from your official webpage?) about former Congressman Ford's visit to a Missouri college. At the end, he had a little jab against MSNBC:
Oh, by the way, Ford is also an analyst on MSNBC ... meaning there's a good chance he hasn't been seen by a lot of people since he left the political arena.
Really he is a straight shooter? I see a guy who likes to make fun of liberals as a cover for news. Maybe he should go to FOX News?
Steve Walsh claims that it was just a joke and liberals became too nuts:
Yup, it was a joke. But the left wing blogosphere got hold of it and went nuts. It was an attempt at humor, but clearly I had struck a nerve - causing considerable angst among the folks at Fired Up! Missouri here in the Show-Me State and Media Matters on the national level. I forgot a cardinal rule - never poke fun at someone's religion. My humor led to a backlash from those for whom global warming - or climate change as it is called when the weather turns cold - is a sacred religious belief. The furor has yet to die down.
He also claimed that it was his personal twitter account. Again I ask: If it was his own personal twitter account, why does it not exist anymore?
I am a little sad that he is out of work given the terrible jobs situation, so if you want to help him find a new job, go here to his blog where he is writing now.
If there are any political reporters needing work, watch the Missourinet website in the next few days/weeks.