MAGA's Cancel Culture Comes for a Meteorologist
The Hypocrisy. It Burns.
“I’ve been on the bench for over four decades, I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one is. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order…
“Frankly, I have difficulty understanding how a member of the Bar could state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order. It just boggles my mind.” — Judge John Coughenour ( a Reagan appointee) as he blocked implementation of Trump’s birthright citizenship order.
Happy Saturday.
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The Firing of Sam Kuffel
Its been a busy week, as the recrudescence of Trumpism takes shape. MAGA’s purges and pettiness continue to gather momentum: career staffers and inspectors general fired, victims of wildfires threatened with political retribution, allies berated, grifts launched, security protections yanked from Trump critics, drug dealers and rioters pardoned — all as the Senate confirms a dipsomaniacal chode to run the Pentagon.
But let’s start this morning with a story from my hometown, Milwaukee. WARNING: OFFENSIVE CONTENT.
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Some of you are perhaps old enough to remember when MAGA’s great cause was the fight against “cancel culture.” And, indeed, the great icons of the right continue to posture as free speech absolutists. “I feel liberated,” said a top banker after Trump’s victory. “We can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled . . . it’s a new dawn.”
Ah, but the new dawn does not come for everyone. Consider what happened in my hometown last week. Talk radio host Dan O’Donnell called forth the flying monkeys to denounce a young television meteorologist who had posted criticism of Elon Musk.
In a post on her private Instagram account, Kuffel shared a picture of Musk at the podium, saying, "Dude Nazi saluted twice. TWICE. During the inauguration." Adding:"You [fuq] with this and this man, I don't [fuq] with you. Full stop."
Kuffel also posted a meme on Instagram with a quote from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia": "Screw that old bitch. He's a Nazi."
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At this point I ought to mention that I know and once worked with O’Donnell. In the Before Times, O’Donnell was a bright, and talented broadcaster who wanted to follow in the footsteps of Paul Harvey. Instead, he’s become a sort of low-rent Sean Hannity.
But the small town bully got results: Sam Kuffel lost her job.
A Milwaukee TV weather forecaster has been dropped by her station one day after she criticized Elon Musk on social media for his straight-arm gesture that many have likened to a Nazi salute.
Staffers at WDJT-TV (Channel 58) were alerted by email on Wednesday that meteorologist Sam Kuffel had left the station. Her biography and picture had been removed from Channel 58 website by Wednesday afternoon.
Lacking the courage of their capitulation, the management of CBS58 offered no explanation of their decision to fire Kuffel. Was criticizing Musk a fireable offense? Did the station have a firm policy against vulgarity or the use of the f-word in private social media posts? They didn’t say, merely announcing: "Meteorologist Sam Kuffel is no longer employed at CBS58. A search for a replacement is underway."
The blowback has been intense. Via the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
Nearly 90% of readers who took a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel poll do not agree with CBS 58's decision to part ways with meteorologist Sam Kuffel following comments on social media about an arm gesture made by Elon Musk….
➤"A personal opinion on a personal account is not the same as representing the company. It's not as if she stormed the Capitol, assaulted police officers, defrauded the government on her taxes or discriminated against other people based on skin color or sexual orientation. It's not as if she is banned from owning a business in New York or hid documents in her bathroom. Watching the gesture by Musk, and comparing it to films from Germany in WW II, there is little wiggle room for error. This is in the context of Musk openly supporting the far right in Germany. If this gesture was so innocent, try it in your place of work or on a public street corner. I am from the generation where being a Nazi was a bad thing, not with a few good people on each side." — Kristin from Glendale
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I don’t know Kuffel personally; my familiarity with her work is limited to watching her report on the weather and, more recently, her social media tributes to the late Bob Uecker. But she is well-liked by both her co-workers and by the audience.
On Friday, she issued a statement. "First, I just want to thank everyone for the tremendous support I’ve received," Kuffel said in a statement to the Journal Sentinel. "I was just voicing my personal opinion on a private social media account that was not accessible to the general public."
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Media ethics experts and lawyers contacted by the MJS were sharply critical of the decision to fire Kuffel, rather than imposing some lesser, more proportional, sanction.
Some also put the incident into a larger context: “Those of us within journalism recognize what clearly is happening, but what clearly is also happening is why so many of us in journalism aren't calling a spade a spade," said Patrick Johnson, an assistant professor of journalism at Marquette University. "What we see with Sam is Sam called a spade a spade."
He also criticized the station for what he sees as a lack of transparency.
"When I had seen the news, when you broke the news that this occurred, I looked up CBS 58's code of conduct. It is not visible or available on their website," Johnson said. "So clearly it must be something internal that they don't feel is important to be transparent about to their audience."
The Hypocrisy. It Burns.
CONTENT WARNING.
But let’s go back to my old friend, Dan O’Donnell, who orchestrated the cancellation of Sam Kuffel. In his original post, he said it was a lie that Musk had given a Nazi salute (although it is unclear whether he thinks that opinion is a fireable offense).
O’Donnell was especially exercised that Kuffel’s criticism of the world’s richest man was “vulgar.”
Keep that word — “vulgar” — in mind.
Because this is what Dan O’Donnell’s own Facebook feed looks like. While O’Donnell did not personally post them, his feed is filled with references to Kamala Harris as a “whore,” crudely racist memes, and references to “blowjobs”. O’Donnell was not offended by any of them enough to remove them from his feed. As of Friday all of these posts were still up.
It hardly needs to be said that O’Donnell hasn’t been fired, suspended, or disciplined in any way for the vulgar memes on his Facebook page. And he won’t be. Because in the Brave New MAGA World, hypocrisy is not a fireable offense.1
Discuss amongst yourselves.
Winter dogs
It’s been polar vortex cold, which means that the boys can go out on the frozen lake.
I asked O’Donnell for comment Friday. He responded by sending memes suggesting that Harris was a drunk.
After seeing Facebook posts O’Donnell allowed, he is absolutely a beyond disgusting man. No wonder the #1 dating turnoff for the last 9 years has been “Trump supporter.”
The problem of the people playing by the rules in a civil society is that we are at a serious disadvantage when countering people who do not give a tinker's damn. Heads they win, tails you lose. MAGA plays by the rules when it suits them and ignores the rules when they are bothersome. And they manage to sell this to their audience as being strong.