Fired for supporting Trump, local Fox anchor shoots back

After sharing her support for President-elect Donald Trump on her personal Facebook page following the election, an anchor for a Fox News affiliate in Texas claims that she was fired for expressing her political viewpoint.

Recently serving with KRIV-TV – which is the Fox 26 affiliate in Houston, Texas – Scarlett Fakhar was the news station’s young noon anchorwoman and reporter, but when she posted her political views on her private social media account, her services were no longer desired.

Even though Fakhar insists that her co-workers often expressed their Left-leaning opinions during their air time, as well as on their own social media accounts, she contends that they were not punished – let alone, fired – for doing so.

However, because the political views were conservative – ones that she was very careful to expressly share privately – t he former anchor claims that she was targeted for termination.

“I was fired for my political beliefs,” Fakhar asserted, according to WND. “Reporters at my station are allowed to espouse their liberal views on-air and on their public work pages, but I’m not allowed to write my conservative views on my personal page for friends. There is without a doubt a double standard.”

Freedom of speech only for the Left?

The day Trump’s victory over his Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton was announced following the election, Fakhar took to Facebook to share – with those she believed were only friends and family – that she was “happy and relieved” about the results.

It was not long until a Left-leaning blogger saw her pro-Trump post that she made the morning after the election. The liberal blogger then proceeded to post a captured screen shot of her post on the Internet, where quite a stir was made about her conservative bent.

The online frenzy over Fakhar’s Trump advocacy eventually made it all the way to her newsroom, resulting in her supervisors summonsing her into their office over the matter. According to the conservative reporter, her superiors took the liberty to write out an apology for her – for expressing her relief that Trump won – and then ordered her to post it on her personal Facebook page.

Reluctantly, Fakhar did as she was told and posted her forced message of “regret” on her Facebook page for expressing support for the Republican president-elect. But stricken by her conscience, the reporter removed the canned apology soon afterward.

Alerting her supervisors that she had deleted the apology she was directed to post on her private social media account, there was initially no indication that her action put her job in jeopardy. But Fakhar found herself terminated the following week – with the explanation that she had violated the social media policy of the station.

“I think that if I had been on the other end of the spectrum, saying something like, ‘Oh I woke up this morning feeling sick, I couldn’t get out of bed,’ like some of the others did, then I would not be in this position,” Fakhar told WND. “No one would have felt the need to screenshot my opinion and send it to the Houston Chronicle. I can’t believe this all started with something posted on my personal Facebook page.”

No conservatives here …

The former anchor maintains that she had a perfect track record with her employer and – unlike her colleagues – consistently demonstrated objective reporting during the years that she had served in the newsroom.

“I’ve been a reporter for four years, and I’ve never had any problems with any boss,” Fakhar continued. “You won’t see one discrepancy in any of my jobs – ever – and especially when it comes to unbiased reporting.”

When WND asked the young journalist whether or not she felt that concealing her political beliefs is the only way she could survive as a professional in the media industry, Fakhar answered affirmatively.

“Yes,” the ex-anchor replied. “For the four years that I have done this, absolutely.”

Fakhar then gave an explanation as to why – after the election – she decided to put it all on the line and post her Trump advocacy on Facebook.

“Because I just felt so strongly about it, and I think that I’ve hit a turning point,” she expressed. “This country is just more divided than it has ever been, and I think that more people need to be speaking the truth, giving the facts as they are, and that’s exactly what I did.”

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