Another notch on the Twitter barrel
Meanwhile fans of “the boss” succeed in getting a woman fired for being critical of Trump in public.
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center [in Buffalo] has terminated a top executive for Facebook posts that bashed President Trump’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Laura Krolczyk, Roswell Park’s vice president for external affairs, was initially placed on administrative leave from her position but was fired following the conclusion of an investigation into her remarks, spokeswoman Annie Deck-Miller confirmed Saturday.
I did a search on Facebook and found a slew of posts demanding her firing. I wonder how many of them are Russian influencers.
Laura Krolczyk, Roswell Park’s vice president for external affairs, was initially placed on administrative leave from her position but was fired following the conclusion of an investigation into her remarks, spokeswoman Annie Deck-Miller confirmed Saturday.
Hauptman Woodward Medical Research Institute has placed Lisa LaTrovato, its director of development, on leave for her comments in the Facebook exchange with Krolczyk, the institute told The Buffalo News.
Is flattery of Trump a condition of employment now?
The institutions acted after the exchange between the two drew criticism once Republican operative Michael Caputo shared it widely through his Twitter account on Friday.
Also Facebook. He has post after post stirring up the trumpists.
The exchange – according to screen grabs posted by Caputo – began when Krolczyk posted a link to an article by the Hill news site about the Trump administration’s reluctance to pay $1 billion to General Motors and Ventec for ventilator production.
In other words, about the fact that Trump is obstructing efforts to contain the virus and save those who have it.
Krolczyk replied: “Trump supporters need to pledge to give up their ventilators for someone else … and not go to the hospital.”
LaTrovato responded: “I think they should be the only ones in packed churches on Sunday.”
Krolczyk then said: “They should barricade themselves in there and ride this out.”
…
Caputo shared the exchanges and urged his 37,000 Twitter followers to raise their concerns directly with the two institutions.
“Is it your public health policy to assure Trump voters are infected with COVID?” Caputo asked of the two organizations.
It’s not clear to me that the posts were public or that Krolczyk’s employer was public – that is, that random people looking at her Facebook could either see those posts or tell that she worked for a health care facility. It’s therefore not clear if it’s anyone’s business what she says to friends on Facebook. But Caputo succeeded in getting her fired.
Roswell Park responded a short time later with a statement saying the remarks by Krolczyk, who was not named, were “inappropriate.”
“They do not reflect the opinions of Roswell Park or its senior leadership,” CEO Candace S. Johnson said in the statement, adding that the institution supports the Covid-19 response of Trump and his administration.
Well then the institution supports negligent mass homicide, so I wouldn’t want to go there for health care.
This is quite literally Banana Republic level stuff, something that would have gotten Obama impeached in its own right, even if he had plausible deniability.
Well Trump didn’t directly do this, it’s his lickspittle Caputo who did.
I’m a Brit so I know nothing about US or NY employment law, but surely you can’t fire somebody for something they do in their personal time, not on company property and not illegal? She must have grounds to sue?
I don’t know. It’s possible that corporations make executives sign some promise not to bring the corp into disrepute via social media blah blah. Harvey Weinstein got away with forcing women to sign NDAs for years. We protect the powerful in this country.
Characterising those comments as “public policy” is pure dishonesty. And imagine the screeching from the right if people had been fired any time they criticised Obama and Obama supporters.
I am not a lawyer, but employment in the US is assumed at-will unless stated otherwise:
Yes, at will employment is why I am glad to have a union contract. But there are still escape clauses for the employers.
Hey Caputo, when she files her lawsuit, and wins, instead of all taxpayers paying her, just one pay her. If this was on her own Facebook account, what’s the problem?
I am not a fan of the internet outrage machine. But it seems to me that our left leaning citizens have been using this tactic for quite a few years. I would prefer nobody gets fired for making unfiltered social media comments. This seems like a classic “You reap what you sow” situation.
Oh yes, employment at will, of course…I forgot about that. Our precious FREEDOM.
Some Guy @ 9 – well, not all left-leaning citizens do that.
But in any case, it’s not just an issue of Never Fire Anyone For Saying Anything. It’s also an issue of what was said.