On May 2, Mary Bubala put the following question to Loyola University Professor Karsonya Wise Whitehead in a live interview on WJZ-TV: “We’ve had three female, African-American mayors in a row. They were all passionate public servants. Two resigned, though. Is this a signal that a different kind of leadership is needed to move Baltimore City forward?” In short order, Ms. Bubala, who had been at the station for 15 years, was fired (“WJZ says anchorwoman Mary Bubala is out in wake of her question about race, gender of recent Baltimore mayors,” May 7).
WJZ undoubtedly feared bad press and the possible loss of viewers and sponsors. One way to probe the reason for this fear — and even more importantly, the reason for the likely outrage of African-Americans behind it — is to ask if the three past Baltimore mayors had been white females, would Ms. Bubala have lost her job for asking that same question? Recalling Megyn Kelly’s firing from CBS, probably not.
There is a feeling in this country now, among blacks and whites, that criticizing people of color is inherently wrong, unfair and worthy of severe punishment. Why, in a country that is supposed to be about equal opportunity for all, and which is slowly becoming more so, should it be not all right to inquire about the competence of a black woman?
We are reminded daily of the threat to individual freedom that comes from the political right. The threat from the left, on the other hand, is less obvious and more insidious. If a protected or underrepresented group can infer, without proof, negative and even criminal intentions in the words and actions of those who do not belong to these groups, this country has ceded, in the name of righteousness, one of its most fundamental rights.
There is a clear element of fascism in the instantaneous firing of those who speak words that were once protected by the First Amendment, but now appear not to be without any effort being made to determine what these words were intended to mean. The fact that Ms. Bubala is a journalist, whose ability to do her job depends on the guarantee of free speech, is an irony that even someone as far to the right as Donald Trump is not likely to miss.
Mary Bubala, get a good lawyer.
René J. Muller, Baltimore