A journalist in St. Louis has reportedly been fired for posting offensive comments on Facebook about the mother of Mike Brown, the unarmed black teenager who was shot and killed in Ferguson, Mo. in 2014 by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, who was ultimately cleared of civil rights violations by a St. Louis grand jury. The shooting led to the city-wide protests that eventually gave rise to the larger Black Lives Matter movement.
The journalist who reportedly made the comments on Facebook, Bobby Hughes, was an overnight photographer and journalist at St. Louis' Fox affiliate KTVI, CBS reports. Hughes penned the Facebook post after it was announced that Mike Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, would be part of the Democratic National Convention line-up. Although the post has now been removed from Facebook, it reportedly said, "She's going to talk about the new lead diet she's endorsed. Five servings and you can lose 200 lbs in two years easily."
A KTVI spokesperson confirmed to CBS that Hughes was fired after the Ethical Society of Police, a group that represents black officers in the St. Louis Police Department, brought attention to the comment. "Bobby Hughes no longer works here; he's no longer an employee of KTVI," the spokesperson said.
Although Hughes eventually apologized for the "incredibly insensitive" post, the National Association of Black Journalists' vice president of print Marlon A. Walker said an apology was not enough, especially considering the currently tense racial climate in the United States. "Race relations in the St. Louis area already were tense before Michael Brown's death. To poke the bear while the wounds are still fresh from Aug. 9, 2014 was irresponsible. Our job as journalists dictate we do better," Walker said.
