Reporter Pulled From Floyd Coverage Over Tweet

According to the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, a Black reporter at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has been recently barred from covering protests in honor of George Floyd, a Black man killed last week by a Minneapolis Police officer

Pittsburgh City Paper obtained a letter that was sent to members of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, which is the union that represents 140 journalists at the P-G. The letter indicates that reporter Alexis Johnson was removed from any coverage related to the George Floyd protests that have been ongoing in Pittsburgh for the last several days.

According to the letter, Johnson was pulled off of any protest coverage because of a tweet she sent on May 31 which poked fun at the mess typically made outside of Kenny Chesney concerts, and compared that to people who were upset about property damage that occurred following a protests in honor of George Floyd, a Black man killed last week by a Minneapolis Police officer.

Alexis Johnson

Johnson confirmed to The Associated Press on Friday that she was told the tweet and the apparent bias it showed were the reasons she would no longer be covering the protests. She declined further comment, deferring to her guild.

Guild President Michael A. Fuoco, who is also a Post-Gazette reporter, told the AP that guild leaders were “appalled” by the move, and the paper’s editors have not yielded at all in discussions about Johnson’s status.

“We feel taking a black woman off the most monumental national story about civil rights in the last 50 years is punishment,” Fuoco said. “We have very few black journalists. Someone who has the contacts and the insights for this story, that is what you want.”

He said of the tweet that he “thought it was clever, I thought it was funny, and I thought it was food for thought. And that’s what we are as journalists. We put things out in the public square.”

Karen Kane, managing editor of the Post-Gazette, said in an email that the paper’s editors cannot comment on personnel matters.

Journalists from other outlets around the country and other unions were also speaking out in favor of Johnson, as did Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, who said on Twitter that her reporting has always been fair and professional.