What is the matter with some people that they would think this is funny? Apparently this started out as a fake TV video that went viral and now female TV reporters as well as some male ones are routinely subjected to this as they try to broadcast live reports.
The reporter Shauna Hunt has to be credited for not backing off and directly confronting these awful people and showing them up for the creeps they are.
One noticeable change is that the employer is being proactive, disciplining the idiot before having to be pressured or shamed into doing it. Unlike NFL teams which will defend criminal behaviour until legal matters make it impossible (i.e. New England, Seattle, Dallas, Minnesota, etc.), business and government owned agencies (which HydroOne is) will and have the right to disassociate themselves from hate speech and criminal activity.
I have no doubt that the scum of this world will whine about “free speech!” the same way they did about the Oklahoma University morons who were recorded singing racists songs. It may be free speech for individuals, but organizations usually have codes of conduct. OU has student code of conduct that outlines behaviour detrimental to the university, and employers such as HydroOne will also. I’m sure that CASE has one as well.
The thing with that meme is that even if it happened to be something completely innocuous, something that wasn’t sexist or anything-ist, it would still be obnoxious simply by the fact that you are messing with someone trying to do their job. All of the people complaining about ‘political correctness run amok’ or whatever simply have to face the fact that even without that particular angle, they re still deliberately being an arsehole.
Apparently the “gentleman” you made the comment has been fired by Hydro One. Free speech is not free from consequences, only from government persecution.
Holms (#3)
The real problem with the meme isn’t that it’s disruptive but that it’s disruptive for the wrong reasons. These jackasses aren’t the next Kwame Rose telling Geraldo to get his opportunistic, racist, spin-happy ass out of Baltimore. They’re not fighting any power holding them down; they’re reinforcing their own privilege at the expense of those who get held down.