Tweeting about wanting to write about somebody’s death by drone might come across as careless and insensitive. Time magazine senior correspondent Michael Grunwald sent a tweet on August 17th saying
“I can’t wait to write a defense of the drone strike that takes out Julian Assange,”
Grunwald, after receiving countless tweets criticizing his statement, decided to delete it but only after somebody pointed out that the tweet would give ammunition to Assange supporters. Journalist like The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald, James Ball and Mosharraf Zaidi fired back about this stating it was unprofessional, vile, and not objective journalism.
In response, WikiLeaks called for Grunwald’s resignation:
“We have written to TIME magazine to ask for Michael Grunwald’s resignation”
Grunwald later apologized on Twitter
“It was a dumb tweet. I’m sorry. I deserve the backlash. (Maybe not the anti-Semitic stuff but otherwise I asked for it.)”
Time simply released a statement, distancing itself from the tweet: “Michael Grunwald posted an offensive tweet from his personal Twitter account that is in no way representative of Time’s views. He regrets having tweeted it, and he removed it from his feed.”
In the past, after WikiLeaks released thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables, several public figures, and commentators like Fox News’ Bob Beckel publicly stated their support for killing Assange.