The Asbury Park Press has fired the reporter allegedly involved in the racist photo caption.
As of this morning, Gustavo Martinez Contreras has been let go, two sources confirmed to TLS.
The paper also issued a statement, saying there should have been more eyes watching, and it failed.
The offensive photo caption was live from Saturday night until Sunday night before it was noticed.
Since the story broke, the APP has come under fire from local and state officials, as well as from Congressman Smith, the ADL, and Governor Murphy.
Two governing bodies, the Lakewood Township and the Lakewood Board of Education, have since cut ties with the paper.
The issue is that this photographer/reporter who was fired should not be the end of this story.
1. Why was the apology that was issued so generic and disingenuous? The editor obviously issued it off the cuff, without much thought, as he apologized to Asians. He obviously did not even bother to take the time to research the true meaning of the derogatory and insulting term being used (it sounds like an insult against Asians at first glance perhaps, but it certainly was not aimed at them at all but rather at Jewish women)
2. The photographer who submitted the caption clearly thought that his poor attempt at “humor” would be received well, and would be appreciated. Granted, he most likely assumed the recipient would get a great laugh out of it and then delete it, but why is that ok!? Who did he send the picture and caption to? His editor? If so, why is that not being addressed!?
Too little; too late. A mere drop in the bucket. That paper is not good enough to line the parakeets’ cage
Yay cancel culture.
Or is this different?
Yes this is different. Cancel culture cancels people for having an opinion or view not in line with “accepted thinking”. This is just straight up offensive and unprofessional according to everyone. It was deliberately done as well, as opposed to doing or writing something while being uninformed.
Cancel culture refers to canceling all the good that someone may have done by highlighting a mistake that person made in the past and ruining their life over it. Or applying current societal norms to historical figures and using that to negate what was great about those people; such as George Washington or Thomas Jefferson.
This, on the other hand is pointing out that despite the APP’s righteous protestations that they respect all communities and are just reporting on “community change”, they are in reality an anti-semitic rag using Lakewood to generate clicks which everyone with a half a brain figured out a long time ago.
Great! Now sue the paper and the perpetrator personally.
This is foolish.
Mr Martinez is in no way Anti Semitic.
While his comment was disgusting and prust him being fired does not help anything.
The anti-semitism is obvious from the slant of the reporting over the last 10-20 years.
The caption just proved that while he puts on a show trying to act all professional, this is what he really thinks of us. He knows good and well that there is nothing racist about kids dressing up on purim or hanging haman. Yet he goes out of his way to stir up hatred against us. Typical fake feel good liberal hypocrite got caught red handed.
And by the way, this was not first time! A few years ago, they showed a picture of downtown Lakewood with the caption “Is Honda giving away Odyssey’s? Where is all the cash coming from?”. Lucky for them, they caught it and took it down quickly and nobody made a big deal at the time.
Was probably this same reporter.
Is anyone else trying to figure out what the caption was?
Everyone else already googled it. You can too.
the one who didn’t show respect for our children’s education?
He got fired for being dumb and being so obvious. The APP hates is and almost always puts us in a bad light. I am sure nothing has changed.
This is nuts.
The reporter should not get fired.
It was a slow news weekend.
He made a dumb, tasteless joke.
He was 1000% sure the editor would catch it and take it out. As I’m sure he’s done MANY TIMES in the past. He never dreamt in a million years it would go through.
It’s such a stupid, sophomoric caption, no way it goes through. Except, in this case,the Editor, inexplicably, missed it.
The editor should get fired, not the reporter.
Now let’s keep an eye on the app to see how long it takes before they hire him back…. The paper and the editor are racist through and through. They only fired him due to pressure, but essentially agree with him.