GOP reportedly pushed for a journalist who wrote about their bigotry to be fired
The GOP has reportedly pushed for a female journalist to be fired from NPR after complaining about her reporting on Republican lawmakers.
Jacqui Helbert was reporting on students from a Gay Straight Alliance who met with Republican lawmakers in Tennessee to oppose a controversial bathroom bill that is similar to one enforced in North Carolina.
Herbert attended the meetings with the students and reported on them for WUTC, an affiliate of NPR.
However, lawmakers complained after Helbert allegedly did not make her position as a journalist clear during the meetings.
Kevin Brooks, a Tennessee representative said that he did not “recall anyone having recording gear at all, or anyone looking or feeling like a reporter.”
However, Helbert insisted that it was “glaringly obvious” who she was – a statement that was backed by some of the students at the meeting.
A number of Republicans who Helbert reported on proceeded to complain about her “journalistic ethics”.
The complaints led to the journalist being fired by WUTC. In a statement on their website they said it was because she did not “identify herself as a journalist”.
In the report, which has since been removed, the journalist exposed Republican state senator Mike Bell for saying that being “transgender is hogwash”.
She also wrote that the meeting made some students cry.
Trump and his administration do not have a great relationship with the press, and the GOP pushing for Helbert to be fired comes after a number of news outlets were banned from some Republican events.
