CNN reporter Elise Labott was suspended for two weeks over a tweet where she expressed sympathy toward Syrian refugees.
The global affairs correspondent had tweeted about the House voting on a bill that would make it harder for Syrian refugees to enter the United States.
She wrote: “House passes bill that could limit Syrian refugees. Statue of Liberty bows head in anguish”
House passes bill that could limit Syrian refugees. Statue of Liberty bows head in anguish @CNNPoliticshttps://t.co/5RvZwVftgD
— Elise Labott (@eliselabottcnn) November 19, 2015
ThinkProgress reports: The tweet was first flagged by Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple who suggested it violated “the company’s editorial guidelines.”
It seems uncontroversial that suspending a refugee program — particularly from Syria where hundreds of thousands of people are dying — is not in keeping with the spirit of the Statue of Liberty:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
In a follow up tweet several hours later, Labott apologized:
Everyone, It was wrong of me to editorialize. My tweet was inappropriate and disrespectful. I sincerely apologize.
— Elise Labott (@eliselabottcnn) November 20, 2015
Many of her followers felt unable to accept the apology saying that her original tweet had been spot on and has been retweeted over 2,000 times.
Niamh Harris