After Washington Examiner media writer Eddie Scarry wrote about what conservative journalists think of GotNews‘ Charles Johnson this week, Johnson fired back with a threat to sue him and a question. He wanted to expose how Scarry left a previous job at TheBlaze.
Despite his surname, Scarry wasn’t frightened.
Instead, he screen capped Johnson’s question on Twitter and his response which are as follows:
Johnson: “Do you have a comment on how you were fired from The Blaze?”
Scarry: “Best thing that ever happened to me. I enjoyed a stint at Mediaite after and then moved over to the Washington Examiner, where I was in very high demand.”
A male reader alluded to what really happened. He asked, “Would this be because Gohmert is a friend of the boss? Am I right in guessing you’d have been fine if it was McCain dancing?” Scarry replied, “You’re on the right track,” but offered no other details. The reader said, “Damn. well you know what they say, truth lives here.”
Scarry declined to comment for this story. (Full disclosure: I hired Mr. Scarry to work as a freelancer for FishbowlDC when he was also working at TheBlaze and am well aware of his strengths and weaknesses and ability to eat a giant family-sized plate of nachos in one sitting.)
The real story of why TheBlaze fired Scarry has never emerged – until now.
The friction between Scarry and his editors spiked when he attended a Friday night CPAC party in March at the Breitbart “Embassy” townhouse, as their Capitol Hill abode is called. At the party, Scarry noticed Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) dancing with a woman, so he photographed them and wrote up an item. The dancing was a type of swing dance, not a particularly intimate dance, nor did Scarry depict it as such. The woman, who was not Gohmert’s wife, quickly flipped out, threw her hand up in front of the camera and demanded that Scarry delete the photograph. Gohmert, meanwhile, discreetly walked away from the scene.
(Please see the offending photograph in question here.)
On Saturday morning, the post went up. It did not center on the dancing, nor did it suggest that the married Gohmert was having an affair. Instead, the news peg was that Gohmert thought Texas Gov. Rick Perry would run for president. Members of Congress can have a heady effect on publishers. Gohmert complained to Blaze publisher Glenn Beck, the photograph was cropped, details were removed from the site, and a few days later Scarry was out of a job.
The post, minus anything that offended the lawmaker, remained.
Imagine that! TheBlaze, which has struggled to be seen as a legitimate news outlet, being manipulated by a Republican congressman? Say it isn’t so.
Scarry’s editor, Scott Baker, who was initially understanding of Scarry’s explanation, soon devolved into a weakling, changing his tune and tone. He later insisted Scarry was deliberately trying to paint the congressman as someone who was having an affair.
The Mirror requested a comment from Baker. He declined. “Sorry, I can’t comment on personnel matters,” he wrote. He did, however, invite me for coffee or Crystal Meth in a few weeks. (I said no to the coffee.)
There you have it — if the congressman isn’t happy, you too could be out of a job.