CNN reporter Elise Labott was suspended for two weeks over a tweet where she expressed sympathy toward Syrian refugees.
The global affairs correspondent had tweeted about the House voting on a bill that would make it harder for Syrian refugees to enter the United States.
She wrote: “House passes bill that could limit Syrian refugees. Statue of Liberty bows head in anguish”
House passes bill that could limit Syrian refugees. Statue of Liberty bows head in anguish @CNNPoliticshttps://t.co/5RvZwVftgD
— Elise Labott (@eliselabottcnn) November 19, 2015
ThinkProgress reports: The tweet was first flagged by Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple who suggested it violated “the company’s editorial guidelines.”
It seems uncontroversial that suspending a refugee program — particularly from Syria where hundreds of thousands of people are dying — is not in keeping with the spirit of the Statue of Liberty:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
In a follow up tweet several hours later, Labott apologized:
Everyone, It was wrong of me to editorialize. My tweet was inappropriate and disrespectful. I sincerely apologize.
— Elise Labott (@eliselabottcnn) November 20, 2015
Many of her followers felt unable to accept the apology saying that her original tweet had been spot on and has been retweeted over 2,000 times.