I was fired for a joke about Kamala Harris’s outfit

I am no stranger to cancel culture — or what we know more commonly (and accurately, in my opinion) as censorship.

When I was one of a handful of conservatives on a liberal college campus, my peers on the left reported me to our resident advisor for “creating an unsafe environment” and demanded the administration step in to cancel speaker events I hosted through the College Republicans. They later would ask the university to revoke my degree. Throughout my six years as a political journalist and commentator, left-wing activists have tried every trick in the book to drive me out of the industry: digging up old tweets, demeaning my appearance and harassing my employers.

None of it has worked… until now.

About a month ago today, I posted a tweet during the State of the Union address poking fun at Vice President Kamala Harris’s outfit. Harris wore a chocolate brown business suit that was panned on social media — some users compared her to a Hershey’s chocolate bar, while others wondered why she wore the same color as her chair. I went for a UPS joke, featuring the company’s now retired slogan:

“Kamala looks like a UPS employee — what can brown do for you? Nothing good, apparently.”

Kamala looks like a UPS employee — what can brown do for you? Nothing good, apparently.

— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) March 2, 2022

No one had a problem with the tweet until a few days later, when I spoke critically of protests in favor of “trans kids” at the University of North Texas. A group of maniacal left-wing activists who want to chemically castrate children in the name of “gender affirmation” came after me. All of a sudden, the Kamala tweet was being re-framed as racist and dozens of Twitter accounts were bragging about contacting my employers about my “bigotry.”

I have written about these dishonest smear campaigns in the past. The people who engage in them do not actually care about stamping out racism, or transphobia, or whatever. They only use those labels because they know they are powerful tools for silencing their opponents.

I’ve been lucky enough to work for The Spectator, a magazine that understands and fights against censorship, for the past two years. They laughed at and promptly deleted the angry emails about my Kamala tweet.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case for my radio station, WMAL.

I was officially hired at WMAL, which is owned by Cumulus Media, this past fall as one of three female co-hosts of O’Connor & Company, the morning drive radio program.

On March 9, I co-hosted the show alongside my friend Larry O’Connor, just like I normally do on Wednesday mornings. It had been nearly a week since the social media meltdown over my Kamala tweet, and none of us at the show had a feeling that anything was amiss.

Later that afternoon, just before 4 p.m., I received a call out of the blue from Jeff Boden, the vice president of Cumulus Washington, D.C, and Kriston Fancellas, the vice president of Human Resources.

They told me that the tweet I sent about Kamala was “racist” and that subsequent follow-ups defending myself and making fun of the efforts to cancel me were unacceptable. I had violated the company’s social media policy, they said, and I was terminated effective immediately.

They did not have the courtesy to offer me an opportunity to defend myself, nor did they speak to anyone at the program before handing down their decision.

Despite multiple appeals, during which company officials admitted that the perception of racism was more important than whether or not my tweet was actually racist, the company has refused to reverse its decision. Meanwhile, my image and bio is still being used on the WMAL website and social media channels to promote their programming. I am racist enough not to be paid, but not so racist that my likeness cannot be affiliated with the station, apparently.

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All I wanted was my job back, but now I feel obligated to speak publicly about what has happened. This incident has destroyed the integrity and reputation of WMAL and Cumulus as hosts of conservative content. We spoke frequently about the dangers of censorship and cancel culture on our program, and yet here they are bowing to the mob. If I can be fired for making fun of the vice president’s outfit, every single host on a Cumulus station is in danger of losing their job at a moment’s notice. Political commentary is worthless if it can’t be used to speak truth to those in power without fear of professional consequences.

I’d like to thank my friends at O’Connor & Company and the other WMAL program hosts who have spoken up on my behalf to the company executives. It’s unfortunate that despite being a key part of the company’s success, Cumulus did not respect them enough to take their opinions into serious consideration.

I feel the only appropriate action now is for conservatives to flood the same generic contact form that was used to fire me. Tag Cumulus and WMAL on Twitter and let them know what you think of their spineless decision-making.

I am sick and tired of conservatives apologizing to the left, staying quiet because they’re afraid of burning bridges, or complaining incessantly without taking action. We will only defeat the left’s bad faith attempts at censorship if we fight back.