Associated Press fires reporter following conservative uproar over her past pro-Palestinian advocacy

Emily Wilder, a former news associate at The Associated Press, was fired three weeks into her job, after conservative groups and news outlets called out the agency for hiring Wilder despite her pro-Palestinian advocacy in college and on social media.

Key Players

Before her dismissal, Emily Wilder had worked at AP’s Phoenix newsroom as an entry-level news associate covering Arizona-specific news, Vox reported. Wilder graduated from Stanford University in 2020; during her time as a student, she was active in several pro-Palestinian groups, The Washington Post reported.

The Associated Press (AP) is one of the largest wire news services in the world. Founded in 1846, AP today has more than 250 offices in 100 countries, from which it files some 2,000 stories a day, according to its website.

The Stanford College Republicans (SCR), a club for conservative students at Stanford University, set off the firestorm that led to attacks on Wilder’s past political activity.

Further Details

On May 17, 2021, the SCR posted a thread on Twitter that excoriated Wilder for being an “anti-Israel agitator.” The group shared screenshots of old social media posts in which Wilder critiqued of the state of Israel and highlighted Wilder’s on-campus pro-Palestinian advocacy. These actions came amid escalating tension and violence between Israelis and Palestinians, which had garnered considerable global press, according to The Hill. Two days before SCR posted the thread, the Israeli military had bombed a building in Gaza housing the offices of AP and other media outlets, claiming Hamas militants had set up camp in the high-rise. 

Conservative media outlets, such as The Federalist and Fox News, soon picked up the story, publishing articles that lambasted AP’s hiring of Wilder, The Washington Post reported. Other outlets, such as The Washington Free Beacon, tried to link Wilder’s hiring to the destruction of the AP’s bureau in Gaza. Politicians chimed in as well, with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) tweeting about Wilder’s employment by AP: “Not a surprise from a media organization that shared office space with Hamas.”

Wilder said an AP editor expressed concern about the harassment she was facing online and told her she would not face repercussions for her old posts and prior activism, Buzzfeed News reported. The editor also asked Wilder to remove the phrase “Black Lives Matter” from her Twitter bio, which she complied with. A day later, she alleges, the same editor dismissed her.

Wilder said she was never given a reason for her dismissal beyond a vague explanation that she had violated AP’s social media policy. “[AP leadership] told me that I violated their social media policy and would be terminated immediately, but they never said which tweet or post violated the policy,” Wilder said in an interview with SFGATE. “I asked them, ‘Please tell me what violated the policy,’ and they said, ‘No.’”

Wilder posted a statement on her Twitter account, saying, “I am one victim to the asymmetrical enforcement of rules around objectivity and social media that has censored so many journalists — particularly Palestinian journalists and other journalists of color — before me.”

Brian Carovillano, the managing editor of AP, later reiterated that Wilder was fired for unspecified social media posts, claiming those posts “showed a clear bias” and compromised AP’s neutrality, he said in an interview with CNN.

Carovillano maintained that firing Wilder protected the AP at large and its journalists. “It’s really important that we maintain our credibility on these stories,” Carovillano told CNN. “Journalists’ safety is at stake and the AP’s credibility is at stake. Our credibility is constantly under attack. Our social media guidelines exist to protect that credibility, because protecting our credibility is the same as protecting journalists.”

Outcome

AP staff protest Wilder’s dismissal

More than 100 AP reporters signed an open letter protesting Wilder’s firing, The Hill reported.

“Wilder was a young journalist, unnecessarily harmed by the AP’s handling and announcement of its firing of her,” the letter reads. “We need to know that the AP would stand behind and provide resources to journalists who are the subject of smear campaigns and online harassment.”

In the letter, reporters wrote of their fear that they, too, could be fired for ambiguous reasons and that the AP, as an organization, did not support its journalists, especially its newcomers.

“It gives us no confidence that any one of us couldn’t be next, sacrificed without explanation. It has left our colleagues — particularly emerging journalists — wondering how we treat our own, what culture we embrace and what values we truly espouse as a company,” they wrote.