Boston.Com Associate Editor Fired For Making A Joke About House Speaker John Boehner

Boston.com – A Boston.com associate editor who wrote an article making fun of death threats against House Speaker John Boehner has been fired. Reached by phone today, Victor Paul Alvarez told the Herald, “Why not comment on the truth? Yes, I have been fired. That’s my comment.” Alvarez, who posted a photo of the underside of a bus on Twitter earlier today, declined further comment. His article, which was posted prominently on the website’s homepage “Top News” section for about 12 hours, was headlined: “Would Anyone Have Noticed if Bartender Succeeded in Poisoning John Boehner?”“The question is: Would anyone have noticed? Stories about Boehner’s drinking have circulated for years. His drinking inspired a blog called DrunkBoehner, and in 2010 he brought booze back to Washington,” the article read. “Had he been poisoned as planned, perhaps his pickled liver could have filtered out the toxins.” Amid the flap, Corey Gottlieb, Boston.com general manager, issued the following statement yesterday: “Last night, an opinion piece was published on Boston.com that has since been adjusted to what is currently on the site. The original column made references to Speaker Boehner that were off-color and completely inappropriate. It reflected the opinions of one of our writers; what it did not reflect, by any standards, were the site’s collective values. Rather than remove any reference to it or pretend it didn’t happen, we are handling with transparency and self-awareness. We are sorry, and we will do better.” Globe CEO Mike Sheehan yesterday apologized to Boehner. He told the Herald last night that Boston.com senior staffers will “more actively screen all the content on Boston.com.”

Poor Boston.com. They literally have no idea what type of website they are trying to be right now. Are they edgy? Are they a real news source? Are they satire? Are they funny? Are they picture galleries? Are they just stories Barstool publishes 2 hours later? What are they? Well currently they are spineless hacks running a JV version of Buzzfeed. One second they want more jokes and the next second you’re fired for making more jokes. It’s crazy town. I don’t know how anybody could work there. In fact if any Boston.com writers are good enough and want to work for me I’ll hire you. I’m sure we pay more and we aren’t hypocritical. The bad news is they don’t have any writers good enough to work for us. But if they did I’d hire em.