(Credit: London Allen, photo by Gage Skidmore via WIkipedia)
Online news site Vox suspended deputy editor Emmett Rensin after his tweets about riots that should accompany visits by Donald Trump. Specifically, Rensin tweeted June 3, “Advice: If Trump comes to your town, start a riot.”
Pinned to the top of Rensin’s Twitter feed is his May 14 blogpost calling violence “categorically immoral.”
Advice: If Trump comes to your town, start a riot.
— Emmett Rensin (@emmettrensin) June 3, 2016
It's very simple: All violence against human lives and bodies is categorically immoral.
Property destruction is vastly more negotiable.— Emmett Rensin (@emmettrensin) June 3, 2016
And listen: I do tend to agree Trump is atypically threatening. That's why I'm not going to condemn rioters.
— Emmett Rensin (@emmettrensin) June 3, 2016
Again: You cannot tell people over and over that somebody is an existential threat to them and then be appalled when they act like it.
— Emmett Rensin (@emmettrensin) June 3, 2016
In a June 3 statement, Vox said Rensin’s tweets “cross a line” and Vox doesn’t “condone” his call for rioting.
“On Thursday night, Emmett Rensin, the deputy editor of Vox’s first person section, sent a series of tweets that, among other things, urged people to riot if Donald Trump comes to their town.
“We at Vox do not take institutional positions on most questions, and we encourage our writers to debate and disagree. But direct encouragement of riots crosses a line between expressing a contrary opinion and directly encouraging dangerous, illegal activity. We welcome a variety of viewpoints, but we do not condone writing that could put others in danger.
“In this case, Emmett’s tweets violated Vox’s standards and Emmett has been suspended as a consequence.”
Mediaite reported Friday, “Earlier today, there was much discussion surrounding founder Ezra Klein keeping his mouth shut about the entire Twitter incident, but now, that silence has been broken.”
iMediaEthics has written to Rensin for comment.
