U. gotta be kidding
Student ‘canceled’ over ‘Blake’ tweet
An Arizona State University journalism student said Friday she is the latest victim of “cancel culture” — having been removed from her role at the school’s radio station for tweeting about Jacob Blake’s past accusations of sexual assault.
Rae’Lee Klein, the 21year-old former station manager of the studentrun station, was first targeted last month when she tweeted a New York Post article revealing the details behind Blake’s arrest warrant, she said.
“Always more to the story, folks,” Klein tweeted on her personal account with a link to The Post’s story. “Please read this article to get the background of Jacob Blake’s warrant. You’ll be quite disgusted.”
Speaking by phone Friday, the senior said as a woman she was “disgusted” by the Blake claims, which included an alleged violent sexual assault that took place in front of a child, so she decided to tweet about it.
“It’s an important story to be told,” said Klein, who’s on the politics beat.
Blake was shot repeatedly in the back in Kenosha, Wis., after he showed up at his alleged rape victim’s home on Aug. 23 — violating a restraining order the person had against him, records show. Blake has pleaded not guilty to the allegations. Following the tweet, Klein said she was called to resign.
“I was in no way condoning what happened to him. I was just sharing information I thought was relevant,” the Cheyenne, Wyo., native said of the tweet, which she later deleted.
“Journalism is supposed to be this linkage institution from the people to the policy and deliver the full truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and whether people agree or like the truth is irrelevant because it doesn’t make it any less truthful and any less necessary to tell.”
Blaze Radio’s board of directors voted to have her removed and eventually, a school dean told Klein remaining on as station manager was not an option. The school said in response Klein remains an active employee but “students have made their own decisions about whether to recognize her as their leader.”
Klein said she’s taking the weekend to mull her options.
“People have always asked me, ‘Why are you staying in this fight? It’d be so much easier to just resign in the first place or now, just take one and essentially shut up,’ ” she said.
“I told them, ‘Obviously that’d be the easy thing to do but it’s not necessarily the right thing to do.’ ”