CBS has sacked one of its senior lawyers for criticizing victims of the Sunday night Las Vegas massacre.
After a 64-year-old man named Stephen Paddock opened fire on people attending the Route 91 Harvest country music festival on the Vegas strip, killing at least 59, CBS vice president and senior counsel Hayley Geftman-Gold wrote on her Facebook page that some of the victims deserved no sympathy because they might have been Republican gun-owners.
In what was possibly a reference to the Sandy Hook massacre a few years back, Geftman-Gold wrote: “If they wouldn’t do anything when children were murdered I have no hope that Repugs will ever do the right thing. I’m actually not even sympathetic [because] country music fans often are Republican gun toters.”
After Geftman-Gold’s comments became publicized in right-leaning media, CBS fired her Monday.
“This individual, who was with us for approximately one year, violated the standards of our company and is no longer an employee of CBS,” the media company said in a statement to The Washington Post. “Her views as expressed on social media are deeply unacceptable to all of us at CBS. Our hearts go out to the victims in Las Vegas and their families.”
Geftman-Gold gave a statement to Fox News in which she described her own post as “indefensible.”
“I am deeply sorry for diminishing the significance of every life affected by Stephen Paddock’s terrorism last night and for the pain my words have inflicted on the loved ones of the victims,” she said. “My shameful comments do not reflect the beliefs of my former employer, colleagues, family, and friends. Nor do they reflect my actual beliefs—this senseless violence warrants the deepest empathy. I understand and accept all consequences that my words have incurred.”
