A Daily Mail Australia online story called contestants on the show Bachelor “vapid c**ts.” Now, the reporter on that story has been fired, the Daily Mail told BuzzFeed News, and one of the Bachelor contestants, Florence Alexandra, said she is “talking to my lawyers about taking action.”
“After an internal investigation, Daily Mail Australia has now terminated the employment of the journalist responsible for the offending words,” a Daily Mail spokesperson told the Guardian. The Daily Mail also apologized in a statement for the “inappropriate language” and “offensive wording that should not have been included.”
The Guardian reported that the reporter, April Glover, wrote the offensive phrase in a Google document version of her article and she accidentally left it in when she posted the story on the Daily Mail‘s website. Further, the Guardian noted that Glover had many stories on her plate at the Mail, explaining, “The reporter had filed no fewer than five stories on Sunday and four on Monday, which is a normal workload for a Daily Mail journalist.”
iMediaEthics has tweeted Glover for comment; her account is locked to only allow followers to read her tweets. We’ve also written to the Mail to ask how long the word was published.
The article in question is still published, and there is no note or disclosure about the removal of the phrase.
Refreshing honesty from the Daily Mail this morning https://t.co/izxC2xpveE pic.twitter.com/OI1ZNEewHR
— Emily Baker (@emlybkr) April 15, 2018