We've officially reached the part of the story of George Floyd's murder where people are using the aftermath as fodder for clicks on social media.
A conservative reporter has drawn widespread ire after a video of her staging a photo where she appears to be helping board-up businesses in Santa Monica, California hit the internet and immediately went viral.
The video shows a young woman asking a worker, who is boarding up a business to protect it from looting, if she can borrow his drill to snap a photo.
She poses as if she is drilling the wood onto the facade herself while her companion snaps the photo and then the pair immediately zoom off in their Mercedes.
.@factswithfiona stopped someone boarding up a store in Santa Monica so she could hold the drill for a picture, then drove away. The video is now all over influencer tea accts. She's since gone private but said nothing pic.twitter.com/K23qssYl0x
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) June 2, 2020
The incident took place in Santa Monica, California which has been targeted by looters in recent days during the nightly protests that have erupted around the country.
Due to her sunglasses and the bandana covering her face, her identity was at first a mystery, but nobody moves faster than the folks on Twitter. Before long, New York Times journalist Taylor Lorenz was reporting that the woman is Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin, an intern at The Washington Examiner, a right-wing media outlet that traffics in the usual Islamophobia and climate-change denial, along with an infamously toxic work environment.
In other words, pretty much exactly the type of place you'd expect someone to work if they're the sort of person who'd troll the aftermath of the brazen murder of an unarmed Black man at the hands of police for social media clicks.
That is, until The Washington Examiner fired her, at least.
I'm told that @Factswithfiona has been fired by the Washington Examiner. https://t.co/4dO0xsdiXP
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) June 2, 2020
Prior to The Washington Examiner, Moriarty-McLaughlin previously worked at Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter, as well as an outlet called Campus Reform which aims to expose the ways "leftist professors indoctrinate students" and "suppress free speech," according to their website.
On Twitter, people were rightfully appalled at Moriarty-McLaughlin's stunt.
You know what? I'm... I think I'm gonna put Twitter away for a few minutes before I throw this phone across the room. pic.twitter.com/IfbFv1HvR2
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) June 2, 2020
Ima throw the whole of Al Gore's internet across the room...
— Clarence Patton (@cpattonbkny) June 2, 2020
Our pain is their entertainment.
Our chaos is their background noise.
Our reality is their visit to the zoo.
— Razi (@papirazi) June 2, 2020
the comedic timing of her timid little "good job guys!.. blm.." as she gets into her lexus legit made me think this was a skit
— Halithikk (@halithikk) June 2, 2020
It's such a symptom of bullish** brand creation. She had posted something about a BLM tag on a billboard and most likely felt the 'need' to show herself actively 'helping' with the clean up. The emptiness of appearance politics is upon us.
— donal logue (@donallogue) June 2, 2020
This lady stopped someone boarding up a store in Santa Monica so she could hold the drill for a picture, then drove away. Please don't do this. #santamonicaprotest #BlackLivesMatter #BlackLivesMatterLA pic.twitter.com/lgt2rZogk9
— ewu (@ewufortheloss) June 1, 2020
*Ralph Wiggum voice*
I'm helping pic.twitter.com/5WsFz60NBe
— influencersinthewild (@influencersitw) June 2, 2020
Influencer be like: I'm helping people...for the sake of likes and comments
— Amanda (@fluffiestcake) June 2, 2020
This is disgusting.
— Scott Santos 🤠🚀🗽🇺🇸 (@scott__santos) June 1, 2020
Sad and cringy
— Saul Garza (@SaulGarza7) June 1, 2020
This is the most offensive content I've seen. Grotesque. I've reported the account too. Hopefully this thread will be viewed. What a disgusting human being.
— Kate (@Kate79174118) June 2, 2020
Moriarty-McLaughlin has since deleted her entire social media presence or made it private.
@mmpadellan/X
