Former colleague of cancelled Teen Vogue editor Alexi McCammond: Not a 'racist bone in her body'
'I don't know what we're doing here really,' Jonathan Swan tells 'America's Newsroom'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Axios national correspondent Jonathan Swan was outraged by the ouster of Alexi McCammond as Teen Vogue editor over decade-old tweets, saying Friday it didn't speak well for the media industry to not accept a sincere apology.
McCammond, who worked alongside Swan for four years at Axios, announced Thursday she and Teen Vogue had parted ways after the staff objected to offensive tweets she sent as a teenager in 2011, which included derogatory remarks about Asians.
"I was just really sad to see this happen," Swan said on "America's Newsroom." "I worked with her for four years. She doesn't have a racist bone in her body. If we can't as an industry accept somebody's sincere and repeated apologies for something they tweeted when they were 17 years old, what are we doing?"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}McCammond, a 27-year-old Black woman, had previously addressed and apologized for the tweets when they surfaced in 2019. Despite apologizing then and also now to upset left-wing Teen Vogue staffers, she became yet another cancel culture victim, losing her job before her tenure had officially started.
Swan noted Axios didn't fire her after she apologized for the tweets in 2019 and called her an "advocate for anti-racism."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}TEEN VOGUE EDITOR BECOMES LATEST CANCEL CULTURE VICTIM AFTER STAFFERS' REVOLT OVER DECADE-OLD TWEETS
"I was upset to see this because it really is just a very stark example of if we can't allow ourselves to forgive people when they did something or said something or tweeted something when they were 17 years old, and there is no indication in their current professional lives that they harbor these views, not a single indication, I don't know what we're doing here really," he said.
Swan also tweeted about the firing on Thursday, asking "where the hell are we as an industry" that McCammond wouldn't get a second chance. Journalists from across the political spectrum agreed, but Teen Vogue staffers, in the end, got their way.
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CNN correspondent Abby Phillip wrote McCammond was "obviously not who she was when she wrote those tweets," and while stipulating it was fair to "demand true remorse," she wished McCammond had been given a chance.
Left-wing MSNBC host Medhi Hasan said the situation made him "sad and frustrated," tweeting there was a difference between "active, current racists" and people who apologized for things they said long ago.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Have we lost all sense of proportion? And which of us hasn't said or done things we regret?" he asked.