The Mirror

Ex-Fox News Employee Rejected From DC Abode Because Of Her Politics

Screenshot/GoFundMe.

Betsy Rothstein Gossip blogger
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A young female former Fox News employee has been shunned from two Washington group houses because of her right-leaning politics. Being a scriptwriter for Laura Ingraham — even for a brief two months — can be a turnoff.

“My second time this week being rejected from an apartment/house in D.C. because I worked at Fox,” Pardes Seleh remarked on social media.

Attached was a note from a potential landlord: “Thank you for your interest Pardes. After perusing your various journalistic and social media posts, it’s pretty clear your politics views are diametrically opposed to ours (and we hate Fox). Hopefully you will find a place that will be a good fit.”

Pardes initially took the whole thing in stride.

“At least they were honest tho,” she wrote on Twitter.

Both were group housing situations, she explained to The Mirror by email. One was an apartment with two other roommates and the other was a townhouse. “I don’t think the one who sent me the email owns the apartment. They just wanted someone more closely aligned to their political views,” she said.

In a follow-up email, the guy mentioned to Pardes that he has a huge ‘Fuck Trump’ banner hanging in his kitchen. It might have hard  to swallow her oatmeal with a “fuck Trump” sign in her face.

“I respect people’s rights to deny service to anybody they want, but I’m also going to voice my frustration with constantly being rejected from things in D.C. because of my conservative background,” she told me. “I’m just a 25-year-old media reject trying to make it in D.C. on a writer’s savings. They both mentioned that they did not want to rent to Trump supporters or Fox News fans/affiliates.”

Still, Pardes urged the public not to go hunting for the landlords who rejected her.

“Guys, please don’t go looking up these peoples [sic] apartment and harassing them, I am not a victim and I don’t want to punish anybody. I’m just telling u [sic] what it’s like looking for housing in D.C,” she continued.

An hour can feel like a lifetime online.

“U know what, I don’t care about anybody’s sexual orientation or what they look like or where they’re from,” Pardes tweeted. “I never did. I am constantly getting treated like a nazi [sic] for no reason and I’m not even super ideological about anything. I’m just trying to make it in D.C. like anybody my age.”

She said she does not plan to pursue any legal action.

“No, I don’t plan to sue or punish anybody for not renting me their room,” she wrote. “That goes directly against my values. Nobody should be forced to provide services or open their home to people who make them feel unsafe. Please stop harassing these guys with legal threats! That’s not freedom.”

About an hour ago, the former Fox News employee appeared to find her sense of humor.

She asked Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who has claimed she can’t afford to live in Washington, to be her roomie.

“@Ocasio2018 want to be my roommate?” she asked.

Pardes said someone created a GoFundMe page for her as a joke “lol.” So far that joke page has garnered her $385 with a goal of $1,000. She still expressed fear about becoming destitute. “Donate to my gofundme so I don’t become homeless and die!!!!!” she tweeted dramatically. “U don’t want me to die from housing discrimination do you?”

In a video posted Thursday, Pardes donned huge dark sunglasses and began discussing her situation.

“I’m in Florida right now as you can see,” she said. “Lots of palm trees and bugs. I’m on vacation. Here for a couple of days. I just wanted a break from everything.”

She explained she was just trying to rent a room in a Washington apartment building. “I was rejected because they looked online,” she said. “They Googled me. They saw my Twitter or Facebook or something.”

Pardes’s said her goal was to save on rent by getting roommates.  “I don’t know that it’s illegal,” she said of the rejections she has received. “It wasn’t a landlord or property manager. It’s like a sublease. They decided they didn’t want a roommate who is a Trump supporter. I’m not even a hardcore right-winger. I’ve never been a very passionate person when it comes to politics. I never was like super willing to die for my political views, but I’m still being treated like a Nazi.”

In her video, she continued, “‘White people hate me.’ It’s not about white people. I’m not homeless. Rent goes up every year. I’m trying to downsize. Move to a place with roommates.” (Clarification: Pardes explained to The Mirror that she wasn’t saying white people hate her, but was reading and responding to a comment from her Periscope video.)

She stressed that she is not a victim, but gets called a “snowflake” if she complains.

A Washington journalist told The Mirror anonymously that she understands why someone like Pardes might get rejected from a group house. “I wouldn’t want to live with a raging socialist,” the reporter told me. “It’s one thing for a landlord to reject someone over politics, but choosing roommates is a whole other animal. When you work in politics, it’s hard to come home from work to a roommate who disagrees with everything you just spent the day doing.”

One follower called Pardes out for inciting her followers and creating an “inflated MAGA drama.”

Pardes tweeted back, “These are my followers. This is my life.”