Publication date: August 14, 2022 • 7 hours ago • 3 minutes read • 16 comments This image by Aislin, published in the Montreal Gazette on October 1, 2020, depicts then-President Trump and then-former Vice President Joe Biden during an Oi their 2020 presidential debates. A former Delta Air Lines flight attendant is suing for employment discrimination after she was fired for posting the cartoon image of Aislin on her personal Facebook page, CNN reported Saturday.

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A former Delta Air Lines flight attendant is suing for employment discrimination, saying she was fired for posting a cartoon on her personal Facebook page by Montreal Gazette political cartoonist Aislin depicting then-President Donald Trump wearing a Ku Klux hood Klan, CNN reported. Saturday.

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The image included an introductory balloon above the debate moderator’s head that read: “Thank you, Mr. President, for wearing your mask.” In the lawsuit filed Aug. 8 in federal district court in Atlanta, Leondra Taylor, who is black, said she posted the image of Trump and then-former Vice President Joe Biden during the first presidential debate, which took place on Sept. 29 2020. Published online that evening and on October 1st in the print edition of the Montreal Gazette. On Sunday, Terry Mosher — the political cartoonist giant who goes by the name Aislin in his editorial work — provided the context for the image, which he described as coming up with the idea while watching the debate. “Masks were so much in the news then because of COVID — and the idea just came to me,” Mosher said.

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Trump, who was asked by debate moderator Chris Wallace to denounce white supremacist groups and their role in violence, refused to do so, at one point telling the neo-fascist group Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” . Mosher recalls: “I took a picture of the actual conversation. I created a Ku Klux Klan mask, dropped it over Trump’s head, and then dropped in the wording balloon. He referred to the image as a phototoon. “They’re very popular — and they adapt so well to the internet. I do it quite a bit, I manipulate the photo and have fun with it,” he said. Once the cartoon was approved by the editors, it was published on The Gazette’s front page, and Mosher posted it on Facebook and Twitter, with a pointer to the newspaper’s front page.

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Within 24 hours, the image “had 2 million views and had gone around the world. After that I stopped counting,” he said. “It’s the most popular cartoon I’ve ever created online.” Since the story of Taylor’s lawsuit broke Saturday, Mosher said he has heard from friends that the image is again being widely posted online. “I guess you can’t keep a good cartoon down,” he said. “But it has a serious side: Does this mean companies can tell you what you can and can’t post on your Facebook page? This woman has my full support because I don’t think any company has the right to monitor your own personal communication tools, whether it’s Facebook or Twitter,” he said. Mosher acknowledged, like most of us, he doesn’t know the full story of Taylor’s firing. But if she was in fact fired for posting the image on her Facebook page, he said, “then it sets a dangerous precedent.”

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According to CNN, the lawsuit states that during a review of Taylor’s Facebook page prompted by another employee, Delta “came across some political posts that it determined violated its social media policy.” According to the lawsuit, a group of Delta employees told Taylor in January 2021 that her posts were unacceptable and they did not “tolerate disrespectful, hateful or discriminatory posts.” A month later, according to the lawsuit, Delta informed Taylor that it intended to “terminate her employment” and a Delta manager said her “political positions were racially motivated” and that was the reason for her termination. Taylor is suing for general damages for mental and emotional distress, punitive damages and lost wages.

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Her lawsuit alleges that Delta discriminated against Taylor and argues that her posts were “political statements, but were not hateful or discriminatory.” It also argues that non-Black Delta employees were not subject to the same penalties for social media posts. A Delta spokesperson responded to CNN in a statement about Taylor’s lawsuit: “When Delta employees mix the Delta brand with behavior or content that does not reflect our values ​​of professionalism, inclusion and respect, that behavior may result in discipline or termination. “While personnel matters are considered private between Delta and its employees, the circumstances described by our former employee are not an accurate or complete explanation of the company’s termination decision.” Moser, for his part, quipped, “I’d like to thank Delta for giving a second life to a really good cartoon of mine.” [email protected]

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