Yesterday far-left commentator Briahna Joy Gray got fired from her job at the Hill where she worked on a show called Rising with co-host Robby Soave. She posted a copy of the letter she received from the company on X.
It finally happened. The Hill has fired me.
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) June 6, 2024
There should be no doubt that @RisingTheHill has a clear pattern of suppressing speech -- particularly when it's critical of the state of Israel.
This is why they fired @kthalps, & it was only a matter of time before they fired me.… pic.twitter.com/lLqgWjgOIV
I'm curious what Section 5.3 says but I don't see any references to it anywhere. Presumably that's a section of her contract which says the company can fire her for specific reasons listed there.
Gray has been the focus of a lot of upset recently for her extreme views of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Most recently, she was dragged online for rolling her eyes during an interview with Yarden Gonen, a woman whose sister was kidnapped by Hamas. Gonen said "I really hope that you specifically will believe woman when they say they got hurt."
The Hill’s @briebriejoy rolling her eyes and sighing after Yarden Gonen, sister of a hostage in Gaza, asking her to believe rape victims.
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) June 5, 2024
No low this person won’t sink to, truly disgusting. pic.twitter.com/d3A5mW0lsK
The backstory here is that there have been claims that Hamas militants raped and murdered Israeli women on 10/7. Pro-Palestinian progressives pushed back arguing that more evidence was needed. Briahna Gray Joy was one of the voices pushing this skepticism.
Zionists are asking that we believe the uncorroborated eyewitness account of *men* who describe alleged rape victims in odd, fetishistic terms.
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) December 5, 2023
Shame on Israel for not seriously investigating claims of rape and collecting rape kits. pic.twitter.com/zbHfduQnev
At the time she argued that she had never been a fan of "believe all women" but also off-handedly suggested no proof of rape by Hamas militants was ever likely to be found. "I’d love to hear their testimony. Feel free to drop a link if you ever find any, she wrote.
Here I am in 2017 agreeing with Bari Weiss that “believe women” is the wrong framework. “Don’t dismiss women” or “investigate and take seriously all claims” is better. Which is what I’m calling for. By the way, which women are you asking me to believe? I’d love to hear their… https://t.co/9tJxC6mhnu
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) December 5, 2023
Her general take seemed to be that this was part of a coordinated PR push by Israel to make Hamas look bad.
Rarely have a seen a more coordinated messaging push. https://t.co/Mb7wWB8LJT
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) December 5, 2023
To her credit, Jill Filipovic pointed out the obvious problem with this argument.
Yes it is generally the case that if you kill your victims, they can't testify against you. https://t.co/dOke8wCYP4
— Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) December 5, 2023
To be clear, Gray wasn't alone in this. Rep. Jayapal got in trouble for her answer to a question about rape as a weapon of war the same week. Another squad member, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, was caught on video telling a small group of protesters there was no evidence of raped Israeli women. He did a quick 180 on that once the video was highlighted by Politico.
A few weeks after all of this, the NY Times published a lenghty story about the rape allegations. Once again there was pushback from the "anti-Zionist" left arguing no victims had come forward. But in March one former hostage, Amit Soussana, did come forward to describe her sexual assault by one of her captors. Despite this Gray has continued to deny the allegations of rape.
I'm spending a lot of time on this but it's not the only recent controversy Gray has been involved in. She also recently appeared at a debate about the war in Gaza where she literally argued that Hamas didn't want to kill anyone. This caused Eli Lake, who was also on stage, to burst into laughter.
Briahna Joy Gray: when Hamas talks about eliminating Israel, they are not talking about killing the Jews. And all Hamas wants is something like what we have in America.
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) June 1, 2024
Briahna, you can't be serious. pic.twitter.com/GTVqPwaaZ2
Gray was clearly angry about the entire thing, according to a story published by TNR.
As soon as it was over, Gray strode off the stage, tossed her mic to the moderator, podcaster Konstantin Kisin, and left as quickly as she could, pausing only to whip off her heels and throw on some flats. “This is the most Islamophobic, racist audience I’ve ever seen,” she told Kisin, her voice shaking. “It’s disgusting. I hope someone drops a bomb on this entire building.”
I wonder if that line about the bomb is what got her fired. In any case, there was a subsequent argument between Konstantin Kisin and Gray in which he referred to her as "DEI Barbie."
DEI Barbie is upset.
— Konstantin Kisin (@KonstantinKisin) June 2, 2024
Imagine participating in a debate about Israel and Palestine.
Imagine answering literally zero of the questions you were asked.
Imagine talking over everyone else and being disrespectful to fellow panellists and the moderator.
Imagine storming off stage…
Gray responded by calling him racist.
No one cares about your race, Briahna. This isn't Harvard. https://t.co/vrbVLhiTBt
— Konstantin Kisin (@KonstantinKisin) June 2, 2024
Kisin offered this further defense saying, basically, that she started it.
For the record, I didn't say a word in public about @briebriejoy until she started coming after me out of the blue. Like most people in attendance I found her conduct on the day pretty shocking but chalked it up to this is what the woke mind virus looks like in real life.
— Konstantin Kisin (@KonstantinKisin) June 2, 2024
Then…
Gray says she'll have more to say about the firing being "part of a coordinated effort" on her podcast.
I'll have more to say about how this was clearly part of a coordinated effort on @BadFaithPod. https://t.co/V04OLYwYQi
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) June 6, 2024
Generally, I'm not a fan of anyone being fired for speech and that extends to Briahna Joy Gray. But I'm guessing the Hill decided her profile had become a bit too radioactive for their taste.
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