Last week, the Associated Press fired reporter Emily Wilder over pro-Palestinian tweets while she was in college.
The firing resulted in more than 100 AP reporters signing an open letter, protesting the firing of Wilder. Now the news agency admits that it made a mistake when they fired Wilder during a town hall meeting, per The Washington Post.
Brian Carovillano, the managing editor of the AP, spoke about the issue, where he stated that Wilder had special training for social media after the media outlet flagged past tweets “borderline” inappropriate.
“We do need to be honest with ourselves, and we need to admit that we’ve made some mistakes in the past week,” Carovillano said.
During the town hall, Deputy Managing Editor Amanda Barrett said, “we want to acknowledge that we made missteps in handling this crisis” when addressing the staffers’ concerns who feel that special interest groups could begin a smear campaign towards another AP journalist.
“Please know that the AP will protect you. We’ll have your back when you face threats online,” Barrett said.
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
