Ohio news station employee fired after Facebook post advocating for celebration of Straight Pride

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — WFMJ TV in Youngstown, Ohio, confirmed through a Facebook post last week that the station’s Community Relations Director, Madonna Chism Pinkard, was fired over a Facebook post advocating for “Straight Pride” during June’s Pride Month, according to news outlet Mahoning Matters .

According to Mahoning Matters, Pinkard made the post under her personal Facebook page, where she goes by “Madonna Jean, where her profile picture includes the WFMJ logo, and she identifies herself as the station’s Community Relations Director.

“The post that has since been taken down showed a meme with a newlywed man and woman that stated, “Celebrate Straight Pride,” “It’s Natural, It Has Worked for Thousands of Years,” “And You Can Make Babies!”

Mahoning Matters reports that Pinkard quickly took the post down, apologizing for offending viewers and stating that she had removed it.

On June 6, not long after Pinkard removed her post, WFMJ took to Facebook , stating: “Dear WFMJ Viewers, Early this morning, WFMJ management was made aware of an unauthorized social media post by a WFMJ employee. That post has since been removed. WFMJ is conducting an investigation into the unauthorized post. We are concerned by this incident and are moving forward with a thorough investigation.”

On Tuesday, June 11, WFMJ The station posted : “WFMJ has terminated the employment of our Community Relations Director following her unauthorized post on a company-linked social media site last week.

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.”

Mahoning Matters reports that they reached out to Pinkard, but she did not respond for comment.

(Video in the story shows the top stories for Wednesday, June 12, 2024)

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