CBS fires executive who said she was 'not even sympathetic' for Las Vegas victims because they were likely Republican gun-owners
Getty/David BeckerA scene of the aftermath of the shooting in Las Vegas.CBS on Monday fired an executive on its legal team after she wrote on Facebook about how she did not care about the people dead in a mass shooting at a Las Vegas country music festival because they were likely Republican gun owners.
Hayley Geftman-Gold, a vice president in the strategic transactions department at CBS, appeared to reference the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in a Facebook comment earlier Monday. She said she had little faith in Congress taking action on gun control legislation, considering the inability for Republicans to support a background check bill following the deaths of 20 children in 2012.
She also wrote that she did not feel sympathetic to the 58 people who died Monday because, she said, country music fans are often Republicans and own guns.
"If they wouldn't do anything when children were murdered I have no hope that Repugs will ever do the right thing," she said.
"I'm actually not even sympathetic bc country music fans often are Republican gun toters," she added.
CBS announced in a statement that it had fired Geftman-Gold, who had made her Twitter account private by midday.
"This individual, who was with us for approximately one year, violated the standards of our company, and is no longer an employee of CBS," a spokesperson said. "Her views as expressed on social media are deeply unacceptable to all of us at CBS. Our hearts go out to the victims in Las Vegas and their families."
Geftman-Gold's comments sparked widespread condemnation. They also quickly became a talking point on the right, as many commentators and pundits used her words as an example of media bias against Republicans and gun owners.
In a rant against politicizing shootings, Fox News host Sean Hannity mentioned the executive's departure to his radio audience, while the story got top billing on Fox News' website and the far-right site Breitbart.
Geftman-Gold did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.