Gerald Bourguet, the PHNX Sports reporter who was fired for tweets that accurately laid out right-wing activist Charlie Kirk's beliefs, published a video Monday detailing the aftermath of his firing. It's a horrifying story about what happens to a reporter's life after getting caught in the gears of the conservative grievance machine.
Bourguet's video opened with words for his former employer:
Losing my dream job covering the Suns has obviously been pretty tough to stomach. Was I disappointed with my former employer's decision, and how their statement almost painted me as some sort of violent person? Absolutely. Was it a spineless decision, in my opinion? Definitely. And was there irony in the fact that I was fired in order to appease a group of people, most of whom had never even heard of the company, and were never going to support them anyway, and then they doubled down and lost more of their audience once they caved to public pressure and fired me? You bet.
Bourguet's comments in September, found in the screenshot below, had centered on his own rejection of Kirk's political beliefs, and asked people concerned with political violence to also consider the various forms of violence that Kirk condoned. In a statement announcing Bourguet's termination, his employer PHNX Sports said that it "take[s] matters involving violence very seriously."
Bourguet went on to explain the fallout, and how Charlie Kirk supporters released his home address and phone number, and targeted his family. "Within two hours of being fired, I was packing up my family and relocating them out of the state, because my wife and I were getting credible death threats towards me, towards her, and towards my four-month-old son," Bourguet said, before showing some of the threats on-screen. "I was getting nonstop calls from blocked numbers that didn't stop for days, and texts from numbers that I didn't recognize with screenshots of my name and address that just said 'Uh-oh.' Traumatizing doesn't even begin to cut it."
In the video, Bourguet said he didn't regret his remarks, explored the hypocrisy of Kirk's fan base, and thanked the people who financially supported his family via GoFundMe. He said he had donated some of the money to an organization that fights for gun violence public safety measures, and another that provides food and water to Palestinians in Gaza. He also said that he had sold his house and moved out of the state because his family no longer felt safe.
"Leaving Phoenix on these terms, where a significant portion of the Suns community wanted me fired or dead, has been a bitter pill to swallow," Bourguet said. "I had the life and career I had dreamed of since I was a teenager. And I still don't think I've been able to fully mourn it being ripped away so suddenly." But he announced his intention to continue covering the Phoenix Suns from afar, at a new publication called Suns After Dark, where he'll resume writing and podcasting about the NBA team as he seeks full-time employment.
