In his Friday night Tweet, Freeps executive editor Denis Finley was responding to a Vermont Public Radio story about the proposal and a comment from Rights & Democracy spokesman Shay Totten that the policy move was “awesome!”
Community members quickly excoriated Finley, who joined the Free Press in 2016. Totten, a former Seven Days political columnist, questioned whether Finley was “transphobic, bad at Twitter, or both.” Vermont Democratic Party chair Terje Anderson called it “another reason not to subscribe to the Burlington Free Press.”
Finley responded to several of his critics in real time.
When Twitter user Tim Sinnott wrote that the policy was awesome “because recognition is awesome,” Finley responded, “All recognition? Any recognition, Tim? What if someone said it’s awesome they are going to recognize pedophiliacs on licenses? I’m not being snarky, I’m just asking. Not all recognition is awesome.”
“So you think trans people are the equivalent of pedophiles?” Anderson asked.
In an interview Saturday afternoon with Seven Days, Finley said that his tweet may have been poorly presented but that his intent was journalistic.
“I really just wanted to ask the question: ‘Why is that awesome? And why is that necessary?'” Finley said. “That’s all, and I think any journalist would ask that question.”
Finley said his word choice was a reference to the regular Sports Illustrated feature “Signs of the Apocalypse.”
“It was a riff on that,” he said. “It was poorly chosen.”
As the post spread throughout the Vermont twittersphere, fellow journalists questioned its propriety. Valley News news editor and columnist John Gregg suggested Saturday afternoon that Finley would apologize or possibly lose his job.
Finley did not apologize in the Saturday interview but suggested he would if the tweet had the effect of making any Free Press employees uncomfortable.
“If it was harmful to them, I would apologize to them,” he said. “It was not my intention.”
Jasper Craven, a freelance reporter who previously worked for VTDigger.org, tweeted Saturday that Finley’s “apocalypse” tweet was just the “tip of the iceberg.” He pointed to previous posts in which the editor appeared to make light of allegations of sexual impropriety and cautioned against a rush to judgment against Roy Moore, the Alabama Senate candidate accused of sexual misconduct.
In the interview, Finley clarified that he was not a Moore supporter. He has, however, frequently weighed in on national politics on Twitter, often criticizing former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and retweeting such conservative provocateurs as Ann Coulter.
Craven wrote that many of Finley’s tweets appeared to violate the widely adopted Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics.
Craven also pointed out a December 2017 tweet from Finley that questioned whether it’s appropriate “to promote drag queens at an event for little kids” and another from that month referring to Politico journalists as “whores.”
Finley said Saturday that he understands why some support a policy to add a third gender option to driver’s licenses but said he had questions about whether that’s a smart idea.
“I’m not sure it’s a good policy, but I understand where the community is coming from when they say that,” Finley said. “When they say ‘It gives us recognition, recognition that we’ve never had, or recognition that wasn’t enough’ I get that, but is it the right policy? … I’m not sure.”
He didn’t name specific concerns with the policy and said he didn’t necessarily oppose it.
“Do I disagree with it as a policy? I don’t really know because I haven’t thought about it for days, but that’s why I’m asking the question: Is that what we should be doing as a society? Is it the right thing to do? That’s all,” Finley said.
Twitter users such as Chris Donnelly, the director of community relations for Champlain Housing Trust, weren’t satisfied with Finley’s tweet-length versions of that explanation Friday evening.
The editor said Saturday that he tweeted his comments from his personal account and said the tweets do not reflect the opinions of the Burlington Free Press or its parent company, Gannett. Finley identifies himself in his Twitter profile as executive editor of the Free Press, but also has a separate, professional account.
Asked whether he thought the “apocalypse” tweet violated any of his employer’s policies, Finley said it was a close call.
“We do have a policy, like most news organizations,” he said. “We are supposed to be circumspect. We have to be careful. And that’s the expectation from every journalist. Do I think this complied? It was probably right on the edge.”
Finley said he hadn’t heard from his employer in relation to the controversy, other than a message from his boss, Freeps publisher Jim Fogler, notifying him about interview requests related to the tweets. Gannett did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As far as he could remember, Finley said, he’s never deleted a tweet — and he doesn’t plan to start now.
“I think taking them down would be cowardly. I said it. I’ll answer questions. If I made a mistake, I’ll admit it. But I think it would be cowardly of me to take them down,” he said.
So, does Finley think he made a mistake?
“I think I should’ve just asked the question,” he said. “I think the word apocalypse was too strong. Hindsight is always 20/20. I was trying to add some humor and it backfired.”
Corrected at 9:16 p.m. to reflect the fact that Finley has a separate professional Twitter account.
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He suggested he would apologize if the tweet had the effect of making any Free Press employees uncomfortable. – gee, just ask the other 2 people left working there! This is not News! It’s the Free Press! Hardly relevant anymore.
Oh, I see, he was trying to add humor. Or ask a question. Or, what exactly? Perhaps Mr. Finley can explain how that tweet was supposed to be funny, since it failed to function as the question he later claimed to be asking.
Intersex people exist. Some Intersex folks identify as male or female, and some do not. That in and of itself should be enough to justify another marker for those who wish it. Mr. Finley is trumpeting his ignorance.
http://aisdsd.org/fact-check/
well, freeps is gonna have to decide whether they be keeping mr. denisjfinley around or not. that’s not an empty question.
but whether they do or not, can’t we just write this off as a person (who happens to be an editor) just barfing out some icky stuff to ignore? inconsequential icky stuff?
Forty years ago we had REAL Vermont Winters. Forty years ago we had a REAL Burlington Free Press that had earned the respect of all Vermonters. I never expected to see -40 again, I was wrong. I never expect to see a BFP I can respect again, not so long as the chain insists on parachuting in right-wing editorial staff that has no respect for the community they purport to “serve”. I honestly don”t know anyone who pays any attention to what they say anymore.
Interesting that trans folk don’t tend to engage in this sort of discriminatory vitriol. It tends to be cisgendered folk. Maybe the bringers of the apocalypse have been at work for a long time. And don’t have mirrors.
I recently tried to put concerns with Gannet behind me and subscribe to the Free Press at their special holiday rate of $10 for a year. I never could get the subscription link to work after many days of trying. I finally called the phone line to subscribe but got dropped from the call every time, at lest five tries. I decided that the Free Press was so poorly run, they couldn’t even do job 1–to get people to buy their paper. I am so glad I didn’t subscribe, it saves me from having to cancel this morning.
To clarify, my tweet about “another reason not to subscribe to the Burlington Free Press” wasn’t in response to Finley’s ugly anti-trans tweets.
Instead, it was in response to FInley’s tweet that the fact that President Obama would be the first guest on Davd Letterman’s new Netflix show was “another reason not to subscribe to Netflix”.
Just some questions — was the tweet accompanied by multiple requests to subscribe? Did it have multiple annoying popups, with obscured controls to dismiss? It does look like he checked it for spelling and grammar errors — unlike many articles in the Free Press.
Sure. But was he fired from his pizza cook job?
If you don’t know what your true gender is what are you suppose to check???
If by “Apocalypse” Mr. Finley meant a Vermont where everyone has correct political views, or else keeps them to his/her self, he sure nailed it.