Local TV Employee Fired for ‘Straight Pride’ Post
Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell /
An Ohio news station employee was fired for posting a joke about “straight pride” in response to LGBTQ Pride Month in June.
“Celebrate straight pride,” the post says. “It’s natural, it has worked for thousands of years, and you can make babies!”
Madonna Chism Pinkard posted this joke during Pride Month. (Photo: “The MLO Bros” Facebook page)
Madonna Chism Pinkard had worked as the WFMJ TV station’s community relations director, in Youngstown, Ohio, since 2004.
The Facebook account of podcast “MLO Bros” posted about the meme she shared and Chism Pinkard commented, “Thanks for getting me fired.” The screenshot posted by MLO Bros appears to show it was posted on Chism Pinkard’s personal Facebook account, although WFMJ said her post was “on a company-linked social media site.”
The TV station affiliated with NBC issued a statement on June 11 confirming that it fired Chism Pinkard. WFMJ declined to comment to The Daily Signal.
“WFMJ has terminated the employment of our Community Relations Director following her unauthorized post on a company-linked social media site last week,” the station said in a Facebook post. “WFMJ is committed to serving our entire community with the respect we believe all people deserve. We recognize we live in a diverse community with differing views on many topics, and we believe discussions of those views and reporting on them should be done in a respectful manner by all. We deeply regret that our Community Relations Director crossed the line.”
“We do not condone such actions and apologize to you, our viewers, for this unauthorized post,” the statement continued.
Chism Pinkard deleted the post and said, “I apologize for the post that offended one of our viewers. I have removed it.”
Chism Pinkard did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by time of publication.
Commenters on MLO Bros’ Facebook post about Chism Pinkard said her termination over the “straight pride” joke violated her First Amendment right to free speech.
“Freedom of speech does not apply to those who disagree with the insane culture that has developed in this country,” a Facebook user named Michael Goterba said.
“I’m gay and find that hilarious,” commenter Joey P. Ritter wrote.