Popular conservative journalist Tomi Lahren sued her employer for wrongful termination last week after her comments supporting abortion sparked wide-spread outrage.
Glenn Beck’s network, The Blaze, initially suspended Lahren, a young journalist who had her own show, “Tomi,” after she called the pro-life conservative stance hypocritical. Later, news broke that Lahren was “banned permanently” from the network, though The Blaze maintains that Lahren is suspended and still receives a paycheck.
The Daily Mail reports Lahren filed the lawsuit Friday in Texas, alleging that her employer used her abortion comments to create a “public smear campaign” against her and to boost Beck’s network and profile at her “expense.”
Lahren made her pro-abortion position known during a guest appearance on “The View” on March 17.
“I’m pro-choice,” Lahren told the panel, “and here’s why: I can’t sit here and be a hypocrite and say I’m for limited government but I think that the government should decide what women should do with their bodies. … I’m for limited government, so stay out of my guns, and you can stay out of my body as well.”
The comments sparked immediate outrage among conservatives and pro-lifers. Many conservative pro-life advocates argue that being pro-life and pro-limited government is not hypocritical because one of the government’s fundamental roles should be to protect the lives and rights of its citizens.
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In her lawsuit, Lahren said Beck and The Blaze knew about her position on abortion and did not have an issue with it until after The View interview.
Here’s more from the report:
At The Blaze, Lahren’s email account was shut down, supervisors stopped communicating with her, and her dressing room door was marked with yellow caution tape, according to the lawsuit filed in Dallas County, Texas, on Friday.
She also claims she was ordered to stay off social media, where Lahren has more than 4.2million followers on Facebook alone.
Lahren claims both Beck and The Blaze knew about her views on abortion, and did not appear to have a problem with it before she appeared on The View, the lawsuit said.
The Blaze continued paying Lahren during her suspension, ‘presumably hoping they could find an exit strategy to sanitize their unlawful conduct’, the lawsuit alleges.
Her two-year contract is scheduled to end on Sept. 30, according to court documents.
“It is puzzling that an employee who remains under contract (and is still being paid) has sued us for being fired, especially when we continue to comply fully with the terms of our agreement with her,” a Blaze spokesman told Dallas News.
Lahren’s lawyer contends that The Blaze has not fully followed Lahren’s contract, and that Lahren wants her contract to end so that she can begin looking for another job.
Previously, Beck challenged Lahren’s stance on his radio show, saying pro-lifers who want limited government and protections for babies in the womb are not hypocrites.
“I would disagree that you’re a hypocrite if you want limited government and yet you want the government to protect life of the unborn,” Beck said. “It’s very, very clear. But it takes intellectual honesty, and it takes a willingness to actually think these things through and to do more than just read Twitter or Facebook to get your news and your political opinions.”
Lahren has not backed away from her support of abortion, and she said she will not apologize.
