Fox News host and former White House spokeswoman Dana Perino was called out Tuesday on Twitter by New York’s Central Park caretakers for saying the park was only getting cleaned from its “summer of trash” because the pope was coming to town.
The pope is scheduled to be in New York City on Thursday and Friday. His itinerary includes a procession through Central Park.
Here’s Perino’s tweet:
Well, well, well – Central Park has finally been cleaned up after a summer of trash. The Pope should come more often!
— Dana Perino (@DanaPerino) September 22, 2015
The Central Park Conservancy, which takes care of the park, responded with a series of tweets that included photos of people picking up garbage and statistics about the work that is done:
1/3 @danaperino such an unfair & uninformed tweet. Central Park Conservancy staff work 24/7 365 days a year pic.twitter.com/zz89jkcalv
— Central Park (@CentralParkNYC) September 22, 2015
2/3 @danaperino Pope or no Pope to keep Central Park immaculate under pressure of 42 million visits a year! pic.twitter.com/5CmXdc9lSn
— Central Park (@CentralParkNYC) September 22, 2015
3/3 @danaperino We remove 2,46 TONS of trash and 70 TONS of recycling every year. pic.twitter.com/OJ21IP0NBi
— Central Park (@CentralParkNYC) September 22, 2015
@danaperino 4/4 excuse me, that should be: We remove 2,246 TONS of trash and 70 TONS of recycling every year.
— Central Park (@CentralParkNYC) September 22, 2015
Perino quickly walked the criticism back:
Oh wait – I love the staff and thank every one of them. They’re amazing. The overnight visitors, by so much https://t.co/zARgGUJiSY
— Dana Perino (@DanaPerino) September 22, 2015
And, I’m a supportive member of the conservancy. So not uninformed. I’m there every day. https://t.co/2TZecr8s3E
— Dana Perino (@DanaPerino) September 22, 2015
And then, the park wrote back to Perino, and even mentioned her dog, Jasper.
@DanaPerino Thank you so much for clarification & support! Hoping you & Jasper continue to love every minute in the Park for years to come!
— Central Park (@CentralParkNYC) September 22, 2015
And Perino commented back:
You all are the best thing about NYC. The gem that keeps us here. https://t.co/njVmAKUd4j
— Dana Perino (@DanaPerino) September 22, 2015
