New Yorker writer and CNN analyst Susan Glasser was lambasted on social media for her tweet following the death of Fox News photographer Pierre Zakrzewski.
“What a tragedy,” Glasser wrote. “A cameraman died covering the war for a TV network that airs a pro-Putin propagandist as its top-rated primetime host.”
Zakrzewski died Monday, just outside of Kyiv, Ukraine, when his crew’s vehicle came under fire. Reporter Benjamin Hall was also wounded. Fox spokesman John Roberts confirmed the story Tuesday.
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What a tragedy. A cameraman died covering the war for a TV network that airs a pro-Putin propagandist as its top-rated primetime host. https://t.co/zKHXRciMYu
— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) March 15, 2022
Glasser’s tweets typically get no more than 1,000 likes, but this tweet went viral rapidly as other users responded to her reaction.
“Exploiting the tragic death of a brave journalist in a war zone to smear another journalist as a Kremlin propagandist,” reporter Glenn Greenwald wrote. “These people’s souls are rotted from the inside out: consumed with jingoism and a McCarthyite zeal to hunt traitors, leaving them convinced all tactics are just.”
Exploiting the tragic death of a brave journalist in a war zone to smear another journalist as a Kremlin propagandist. These people’s souls are rotted from the inside out: consumed with jingoism and a McCarthyite zeal to hunt traitors, leaving them convinced all tactics are just https://t.co/w1vRbPpl8z
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 15, 2022
“This is an incredibly sick and disgusting tweet by [Glasser] from the [New Yorker],” Missouri Rep. Vicky Hartzler tweeted. “Truly a terrible response to a horrific tragedy and loss of life. Please join me in praying for Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and his family. May he Rest in Peace.”
This is an incredibly sick and disgusting tweet by @sbg1 from the @NewYorker. Truly a terrible response to a horrific tragedy and loss of life.
Please join me in praying for Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and his family. May he Rest in Peace. https://t.co/SRar6ewedB
— Rep. Vicky Hartzler (@RepHartzler) March 15, 2022
“A man died in the name of journalism but hey let’s minimize it,” reporter Ali Bradley responded. “Do better.”
A man died in the name of journalism but hey let’s minimize it @sbg1 — do better. https://t.co/zJpOEEOqps
— Ali Bradley (@AliBradleyTV) March 15, 2022
“This is gross,” fellow Fox affiliate reporter Lisa Boothe tweeted. “These people are evil. The folks who try to censor dissenting opinions and then exploit a tragedy think they are the good guys.”
This is gross. These people are evil. The folks who try to censor dissenting opinions and then exploit a tragedy think they are the good guys. https://t.co/S31tDmBWK5
— Lisa Boothe (@LisaMarieBoothe) March 15, 2022
Glasser eventually realized how her initial response appeared, attempting to cushion it minutes later with an additional tweet claiming she was “so grateful for the heroic work that Pierre and all the journalists, Ukrainian and foreign, have been doing risking their lives to show us the horror of this war.”
“Makes the years of lies and propaganda so much harder to take — there are truly deadly consequences,” Glasser wrote.
So grateful for the heroic work that Pierre and all the journalists, Ukrainian and foreign, have been doing risking their lives to show us the horror of this war. Makes the years of lies and propaganda so much harder to take—there are truly deadly consequences.
— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) March 15, 2022
She isn’t the only newsperson to encounter backlash regarding Fox’s correspondents in Ukraine. Earlier in March, Fox personality Greg Gutfeld also scuffled with the now-wounded Hall over coverage of Ukraine.
“This is a lot like other stories,” Gutfeld said, “in which an image is taken and then played over and over and over again to create some kind of emotional response out of you, because that makes a profit.”
Hall went on to appear on the same program to dispute Gutfeld, saying, “Speaking as someone on the ground, I want to say that this is not the media trying to drum up some emotional response.”
“What do you think, should I take Benjamin Hall’s cheap attack on me or be a good co-worker and let it slide?” Gutfeld said later that same day. “But I will be the better man here.”
Two other reporters were killed in Ukraine in the last week.
