A journalist was fired after his employer found he had tweeted out his wish that the Covington Catholic kids and their parents be killed.
Until this week, Erik Abriss worked for a digital company named INE Entertainment. But after his January 19 tweet wishing for violence on people he opposes was noticed, his employers decided to distance themselves from their now former employee.
Abriss, who also writes for the pop culture website Vulture, went on the attack against the Covington teens on Saturday.
“I don’t know what it says about me, but I’ve truly lost the ability to articulate the hysterical rage, nausea, and heartache this makes me feel,” Abriss tweeted. “I just want these people to die. Simple as that. Every single one of them. And their parents.”
Abriss later deleted his tweet, but it was archived for posterity.
That was not the only tweet Abriss made on the incident. Minutes after his first tweet, Abriss hit the topic again.
“Look at the shit-eating grins on all those young white slugs’ faces. Just perverse pleasure at wielding a false dominion they’ve been taught their whole life was their divine right. F**king die,” Abriss tweeted.
The Twitter user’s employers were not amused. INE Entertainment quickly moved to cut ties with Abriss after being alerted to the existence of the social media posts.
“We were surprised and upset to see the inflammatory and offensive rhetoric used on Erik Abriss’ Twitter account this weekend. He worked with the company in our post-production department and never as a writer,” the company told TheWrap.
“While we appreciated his work,” the company added, “it is clear that he is no longer aligned with our company’s core values of respect and tolerance. Therefore, as of January 21, 2019, we have severed ties with Abriss.”
On Monday, Vulture.com also said that the tweets were inappropriate and that Abriss had been let go.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.