NORWALK, CT — Fred Gerteiny knows he shouldn’t have posted the tweet. The veteran sports reporter, formerly at News 12 Connecticut, told Patch that he meant it as a tongue-in-cheek dig when he tossed off a tweet calling South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott an “Uncle Tom.” Scott, a Republican who is Black, had just awkwardly tried to defend President Donald Trump’s callout to the white supremacist group Proud Boys during the first presidential debate between Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
Gerteiny, who is white, wrote “Thanks Uncle Tom” in a since-deleted tweet the day after the debate, and that same day he was fired by News 12 Connecticut. He has since deactivated his Twitter and Facebook accounts as a result of the social media uproar the message caused.
“[My] whole life changed on one ill-conceived tweet,” Gerteiny told Patch.
“I’ve been getting death threats, and the strange thing is that the threats came from white Trump supporters. They weren’t from African Americans … they actually agreed with me.
“Technically, I was supporting the African American community,” he continued. “I was backing them up, attacking this [senator] for forgetting where he came from.”
Gerteiny, a Westport native who lives in Fairfield, had worked on and off at News 12 for 15 years, eventually becoming the station’s de facto sports director. He’s been nominated twice for sports Emmy Awards, and he has a positive reputation in the industry.
The station, however, acted quickly in dismissing Gerteiny, calling the tweet “racially insensitive.” He was not given a suspension, something he believes he deserved instead of termination, which came via a socially distanced Zoom conference call.
“It was about a five-minute meeting, and that was it,” Gerteiny said of the firing. “I understand they did what they thought was right, because of the intense pressure they were getting. I thought a suspension would be warranted, you know? Put me on a two-week suspension or whatever.”
As for whether he believes the tweet was racially insensitive, Gerteiny said that is complicated because he didn’t mean it as a racial insult.
“It’s hard for me to live in the shoes of an African American, so I don’t know,” he said. “If they take it that way, then it is. In my mind, I was supporting them. Maybe I’m wrong.”
Gerteiny said white supremacy is evil, so how did Scott “not realize that” when the senator said that Trump “misspoke” when telling Proud Boys to “stand by.” Scott also said that Trump should correct his remarks.
“How was this [senator] not sensitive to the needs in his own community?” Gerteiny said, adding that he believed the senator’s reaction was wrong and he was trying to make that point.
Gerteiny said he wants to work again but acknowledges that it could be back behind the camera as a producer instead of on-air, at least for a while.
“I think, right now, hiring somebody where you can do a Google search on them, you’re not going to put that person on the air right now,” he said, adding jokingly that he could probably go on the lecture circuit to talk about the dangers of social media.
“People who know me, know me,” he said, adding that he tried reaching out to Scott with an apology via Twitter, as reported by the Daily Caller before he deactivated his account.
“I’m not an insensitive person, I’m not a nasty person,” Gerteiny said. “This was so out of character for me.”
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