Yelp becomes combat zone in Huckabee Sanders saga

Page for restaurant that kicked out press secretary is now on “active cleanup”

America’s cultural wars continue to play out online, with Yelp putting an “active cleanup alert” on yet another business page that has gone viral because of politics.

This time, the business page belongs to The Red Hen, a 26-seat restaurant in Lexington, Virginia that on Friday night turned away White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

“I’m not a huge fan of confrontation,” the restaurant’s owner, Stephanie Wilkinson, told the Washington Post. “I have a business, and I want the business to thrive. This feels like the moment in our democracy when people have to make uncomfortable actions and decisions to uphold their morals.”

Mentioning President Donald Trump’s actions on transgender people in the military and on immigration, Wilkinson said she believes Sanders works for an “inhumane and unethical” administration, and that she asked Sanders to leave after consulting with her staff.

Sanders left the restaurant without putting up a fight, Wilkinson said.

But the press secretary tweeted about it Saturday: “Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left. Her ac-

tions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.”

Now the restaurant’s Yelp page is effectively closed for business as the reviews site cleans it up because the reviews being posted there are reacting to the news.

The Red Hen has gone from having five stars on Yelp to having one-and-ahalf stars in the aftermath of the Sanders saga, the BBC points out.

“When businesses make the news, their Yelp business page can be affected,” a Yelp spokeswoman said in an email Monday. “Media-fueled

reviews typically violate our Content Guidelines, one of which deals with relevance. Yelp reviews are required to describe a firsthand consumer experience, not what someone read in the news. Our user support team ultimately removes reviews that violate these guidelines.”

Some of the reviews that are grayed out but still readable on the Red Hen’s Yelp page include contrasting views: “To the owners of The Red Hen, thank you for being true patriots and true Americans. You have a right to refuse service to evil people.” Also: “Hoping your (sic) out of business soon,” and, “A staff full of bigots. Look it up. To discriminate based on different views.”

President Trump didn’t appear to go on Yelp, but he

did tweet his disapproval.

“The Red Hen Restaurant should focus more on cleaning its filthy canopies, doors and windows (badly needs a paint job) rather than refusing to serve a fine person like Sarah Huckabee Sanders,” Trump said Monday. “I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it is dirty on the inside!”

The Red Hen might get some remodeling help, thanks to a fundraiser that has raised more than $6,000 on GoFundMe. It’s titled “Rewarding Red Hen’s Courage.”

Back to the internet shaming: Last month, Yelpers and others in cyberspace directed their attention to a lawyer who ranted against Spanish-speaking people at a New York deli, saying they should be speaking English because “this is America.” The Yelp page for the Law Office of Aaron M. Schlossberg continues to display an “active cleanup alert” box because of it.

Other people who support the Trump administration are increasingly being shunned in public. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was driven away from a Mexican restaurant in Washington last week. Stephen Miller, the Trump adviser who’s being credited with the administration’s “zero tolerance” border policy, was also heckled at a Mexican restaurant. And Pam Bondi, the Florida attorney general who often appears on Fox News, was escorted out of a Florida movie theater Friday.