The Hill‘s Briahna Joy Gray is claiming “speech suppression” and racism and her defenders are yelling “cancel culture!” after she was handed her walking papers Thursday, two days after a portion of an interview with the sister of Hamas hostage Romi Gonen went viral for Gray’s abhorrent treatment of her guest.
Gray, who was the national press secretary for Bernie Sanders’ failed 2020 presidential campaign, was seen at the end of a Rising segment Tuesday rolling her eyes when the guest, Yarden Gonen, pleaded with her to believe the documented instances of rape and torture suffered by Israeli women at the hands of Hamas terrorists:
When Yarden Gonen told Gray that she hopes she believes female victims who say they were sexually assaulted by Hamas terrorists, Gray rolled her eyes and abruptly ended the interview, video shows.“I really hope that you, specifically, will believe women when they say that they got hurt,” Gonen said.Gray lets out a sigh, appears to roll her eyes and says, “All right thanks for joining. Stick around,” as Gonen is still trying to get a word in.
Watch:
On Thursday night, Gray announced that she had been given 30 days notice of her contract termination. She also proclaimed, without evidence, that her firing came as a result of her criticism of Israel:
Naturally, Gray is portraying herself as the victim of a “coordinated effort” to have her fired for supposedly speaking truth to power on the Israel issue or whatever. Perhaps feeling liberated, she accused her critics of “Zionist racism,” while also tweeting and retweeting some pretty despicable things and people, confirming she was a Hamas rape denier in the process:
She also accused pro-Israel Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY) of being involved in that alleged campaign to get her fired:
Predictably, her defenders are saying she’s a victim of “cancel culture” from people who are allegedly intolerant of criticism of Israel:
What her supporters won’t tell their viewers and readers, however, is that in reality this has nothing to do with “cancel culture.” Gray has been a non-stop critic of Israel since October 7th, with the Rising video catalog filled with segments since then where Gray was allowed to freely express her oftentimes bigoted opinions about Israelis and the stories about the atrocities committed against them by Hamas.
At the same time, she’s made her opinions about Israel well known on her Twitter/X page as well, and presumably was never warned about it by the higher-ups at The Hill (we’d have heard about it had that happened, surely).
This has been going on for eight months. So no, this isn’t about mere criticism of Israel.
While The Hill isn’t commenting on what led to Gray’s firing, I suspect her recent remarks on Hamas supposedly just trying to build a democratic society as well as the eye-roll segment were the straws that broke the camel’s back for Hill brass:
Believe it or not, some journalistic outfits do have standards out there, and perhaps The Hill is one of them. There’s this thing called “responsibility” in journalism, and whether you are a supposedly objective reporter or an opinion writer/commentator, there is an unspoken but understood rule about how you conduct yourself, how you frame your stories/arguments, and how you treat your guests.
Passionate back and forth is one thing, as is constructive criticism of tactics. But denialism about things that actually happened, like the rapes, torture, the baby beheadings, and the rationale behind the Hamas attacks, is something else altogether. It’s beyond simply being rude and displaying unprofessional behavior. It’s grotesque, a bridge too far, akin to 9/11 conspiracy theorists and denialism, which few people in this country tolerate.
Couple that with the eye-rolling and disrespect shown to a distressed relative of a Hamas hostage, and you’ve got a recipe for someone to be handed their pink slip.
Some final thoughts from Gray’s critics, including Torres:
Bingo.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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