After he parted ways this week with the West Virginia newspaper that employed him, ex-columnist Don Surber rehashed the personal blog post that got him in trouble in the first place.
This time, however, Surber omitted the passage in which he described Michael Brown an “animal” who needed to be put down by Ferguson, Mo. police Officer Darren Wilson this summer. He wrote that “[r]eaders who want to carry this on forever should be ashamed of themselves.”
“My initial reaction was Michael Brown deserved to die and I was right. His death was a justifiable homicide,” Surber wrote Thursday in the post that he deleted earlier this week. “I knew this just as I knew Tawana Brawley was lying, and Crystal Magnum was lying. They were never held accountable for their lies because to do so would mean the media would have to rebuke the ‘civil rights leaders,’ a euphemism for tax-exempt leeches. The last thing the Al Sharptons of American politics want is racial equality because that would put these millionaires out of business.”
Surber originally published the offending post on Saturday. The following morning, after a talking-to from his higher-ups at the Charleston Daily Mail, Surber crossed out his inflammatory description of Brown and added a sarcastic note.
“I made a factual error. Michael Brown was not an animal but a man. Big. Brutal. High,” he wrote in the update, which was placed at the top of his post. “His death was a justifiable homicide and not a putting down.”
Brad McElhinny, the Daily Mail’s editor and publisher, was apologetic for the post. He told TPM on Tuesday that the newspaper was still in discussions about Surber’s fate. By Thursday, a decision had been made.
“As of this week, Mr. Surber is no longer employed by the Daily Mail,” McElhinny wrote in a blog post on the newspaper’s website. “While his sometimes controversial and caustic columns were noted by many readers, few readers realize the in-depth institutional knowledge and substantial contributions he made during his 30 year career here.”
McElhinny was right. Surber’s blog post on Brown was simply the latest addition to a portfolio that is a treasure trove of incendiary rhetoric. So what changed this time? McElhinny wouldn’t say.
“We’d like to let the healing start here, and I don’t really want to comment beyond our statement,” he told TPM in an email on Friday morning.
Surber, meanwhile, has kept his personal blog humming, publishing a total of three posts on the same day his career ended at the Daily Mail.
This reminds me of a saying I read some years ago:
Some people would rather die than be proven wrong.
GOOd JOb LibTARds. Now 30 YEars OF institutiONAL knowledge IS gone from the DAiLY MaiL gone. LIbTARDS HAte AmericaN tradITIOns like haTE and OTher AMericaN Values!!!1!1!!one!!!
I think it would be great if Surber had an in-person epiphany with the folks mourning the murder of Mike Brown. I’d be happy to volunteer to enforce the enlightenment.
Some bullies pick dead kids to haze.
Bigotry is lessened one funeral at a time.