FOX News has posted a video interview with a Tennessee newspaper editor who was fired for a headline critical of President Obama. He says his bosses bowed to pressure from the president’s supporters, claiming he wouldn’t have been canned if he had said the same of former President George W. Bush.
Drew Johnson’s editorial, titled “Take your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President: Your policies have harmed Chattanooga enough,” went viral and drew national attention earlier this week when Obama visited the city.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press editorial page editor was later ousted. The newspaper released a statement Thursday saying Johnson had been fired for “placing a headline on an editorial outside of normal editing procedures.”
But in an interview with Fox News, Johnson said that policy — requiring that last-minute changes to headlines be approved — was only implemented after they published his piece.
Johnson explained he was simply thinking of the “Take This Job and Shove It” song and thought it was an “apt title,” and used it to replace a “placeholder” headline. He said his criticism of the president’s jobs plans was in line with the views of many readers, but his bosses were dealing with complaints.
To read more from FOX News, click here.
The Times Free Press has a new headline online “President Obama’s policie have harmed Chattanooga enough,” click here to read the editorial.