One of the striking things about the massive cultural convulsions happening in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s fatal shooting on Wednesday, September 10 is how rapid they’ve been. Take the firing of MSNBC analyst Matthew Dowd: As the guy who happened to already be booked on the cable news network when Kirk was shot—and talking before the fact that the conservative activist had been hit, let alone fatally, was known—Dowd was asked about “the environment” surrounding the shooting. His response, which called Kirk “divisive,” and included the phrase “hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions,” was seized on so quickly that MSNBC’s PR socials had condemned it within about three hours, and Dowd was fired by the end of the day. Now, he’s opened up about his termination, stating that a “Right Wing media mob ginned up” controversy surrounding his words, and MSNBC “reacted to that mob.”
Keep in mind when the anchor came to me to comment on the ‘national environment’ the only thing known at the time was shots were fired and there was no reporting yet that Kirk was the target or had been shot at. I said in the moment that we needed to get the facts because we have no idea what this could be and that it could easily be someone firing a gun in the air to celebrate the event. Remember Kirk is a diehard advocate of the 2nd amendment. I said that Kirk has been a very divisive and polarizing figure. I then added that we are in a toxic time in America, unlike every other democracy in the world, where we have a combination of divisiveness and near unlimited access to guns. The effort by Holocaust survivors to remind folks of Germany in the 1930s #ItStartedWithWords came to my mind and I said my now legendary line “hateful thoughts lead to hateful words which ultimately lead to hateful actions”. I thought to myself how could anyone disagree with this. I guess I was naïve.
Dowd, who calls himself “shell-shocked” and “down and a bit disheartened in this moment” after his firing, says he knows that most people at MSNBC knew the proper context and meaning of his words. But despite knowing “my words were being misconstrued, the timing of my words forgotten (remember I said this before anyone knew Kirk was a target), and that I apologized for any miscommunication on my part, I was terminated by the end of the day.”
Earlier today, leadership at MSNBC parent company Comcast issued a memo to employees, addressing Dowd’s firing. “You may have seen that MSNBC recently ended its association with a contributor who made an unacceptable and insensitive comment about this horrific event,” the memo, which called Kirk “a 31-year-old father, husband, and advocate for open debate, whose faith was important to him,” said. “That coverage was at odds with fostering civil dialogue and being willing to listen to the points of view of those who have differing opinions. We should be able to disagree, robustly and passionately, but, ultimately, with respect. We need to do better.”
Dowd was just one of the first, and among the most high-profile, of the people who quickly lost jobs due to their reactions to Kirk’s shooting. At least some right-wing commentators have been aggressive and enthusiastic about employing the position Kirk’s violent death has afforded them on the moral high ground to call for punishment of anyone perceived as “celebrating” that Turning Point USA founder’s death; in the two days since the shooting, reports have emerged of DC Comics canceling a Red Hood series from well-known author Gretchen Felker-Martin over jokes she made about Kirk’s murder, and a developer at video game studio Sucker Punch—situated smack dab in the neverending culture war surrounding video games online—has reportedly been fired from the studio over similar comments.
