Local reporter Melanie Standiford of Curtis, Nebraska was axed from her job for circulating a petition at her own church that sought to make the town a "sanctuary city for the unborn."
I'm not joking.
From the Catholic News Agency:
Melanie Standiford, a Nebraska native, told CNA in a phone interview that her firing from the NBC affiliate KNOP-TV, owned by the Atlanta-based Gray Television, came as a "surprise."
On the day she was fired, Standiford recounted that her boss told her she was being cut from the company for "practicing partisan politics."
"I said in response, ‘partisan politics'? I don't believe being pro-life is partisan,'" she recalled.
Standiford had circulated the petition at St. John's Lutheran Church and a neighboring congregation in Curtis and the local Flatwater Free Press decided to dunk on her by ruining her career over 47 signatures on a petition signed by private citizens within the walls of a church.
Good job, you media hacks!
The petition — for which Standiford collected 47 signatures — was circulated by town residents in order to call for a special vote in November to make Curtis a "sanctuary city for the unborn."
Curtis, which has a population of 939 (2010), is one of six neighboring towns calling for an abortion ban within their city limits.
Standiford's participation in the effort was reported by the Flatwater Free Press, a news website featuring investigative reporting on issues affecting Nebraska, in a story about the ballot initiative.
I wonder how many television news anchors were fired by this company for supporting abortion, BLM, gay Pride events, or any other leftist political cause?
(Prediction: Zero.)
Standiford told CNA that the reporter asked her whether or not it was "ethical" for her as a journalist to collect signatures for the petition.
"I told her, this is in the privacy of my church. This is something that I did, acting as a Christian, in the privacy of my church," Standiford said, adding that the reporter kept pressing her about ethics.
By the way, Standiford says everyone she knows is pro-life, so this isn't a controversial opinion to hold, at all, in her community. She wasn't using her job as a way to agitate the community and generate controversy.
In fact, she has dutifully covered pro-abortion stories as a reporter:
"All the time that I covered it, I would interview those who were pro-choice, and even Planned Parenthood. My writing and storytelling was always very balanced," she said.
"The article was an attack; an attack directly on me," she added.
The oBjEcTiVe jOuRNaLiSts still got her fired for her thoughtcrime.
The day after the article came out, Standiford got news from her boss at KNOP-TV that she was being fired.
"He came in and handed me an envelope and said it would be my last day," she said, adding that she recorded the entire conversation.
"I asked him to tell me exactly why I was being fired — and he said, word for word, ‘You're being fired for practicing partisan politics.'"
Standiford told her boss in reply: "I didn't think I was being political with that in my home church, sitting in the pews in my church."
