Journalists’ Roundtable: 3-31-23

It’s the Journalists’ Roundtable. We were joined by Camryn Sanchez of the Arizona Capitol Times, Howie Fischer of Capitol Media Services and Jim Small of the Arizona Mirror.

Topics covered include:

• Governor Hobbs’ Press Secretary resigning after posting a controversial tweet

What happened with Hobbs’ spokesperson?

“Josselyn Berry resigned, but she asked to resigned, by the Governor after posting this tweet. It was a gif of a woman holding two guns and it said, ‘Us when we see transphobes.'” It wasn’t in relation the Nashville shooting, but it came out about the same time as the shooting, and it was interpreted by many people, especially Republicans, as threatening and violent and certainly not in good taste,” said Sanchez.

“There is a line you don’t cross. You could’ve made the same comment about how you feel about transphobes without suggesting violence, and whether she was suggesting violence or not, there’s a line that anybody who’s been in politics understands,” said Howie.

“It’s definitely invoking the idea of a call to violence, whether it’s serious or even it’s tongue and cheek. It’s not necessarily received, even if it’s meant as a joke, it’s not necessarily received as a joke for understandable reasons. I think definitely was in bad taste, and in a lot of ways I think the Hobbs administration did what they needed to do and acted pretty quickly,” said Small, who agrees they made the right choice.

Are there any ideas why she tweeted this?

“There was a discussion about the idea that transphobic people, particularly on the left, and that was kind of what the response was about was about how there are policies that are supported by ostensible allies of the LGBT community and it was expressing a frustration at those people in particular,” said Small.

“They took care of it; they made it a one day story unlike let’s say the inaugural funds, which just was a self-inflicted wound in about 42 different ways. I think they’re finally getting their feet up there, but they finally understand, ‘Well, let’s just be out in front with this,'” said Howie.