Conservative Advocacy Group Sacks Reporter After Blog Uncovers Support for White Supremacy

The Maine Heritage Policy Center, a conservative advocacy group, has fired the political reporter for its fledgling news organization after his online comments showed support for white supremacist causes.

Lance Dutson, the CEO of MHPC, told progressive activist Mike Tipping Tuesday evening that reporter Leif Parsell was no longer working for The Maine Wire, an online news organization that MHPC launched last month. An anonymous blog, The State of Maine, posted an item Tuesday containing links to several comments Parsell had made on various online forums prior to his employment by MHPC.

Some of Parsell’s comments appeared on the site PolicyMic.com. In one, Parsell wrote that “cultural diversity combines with our increasing racial and ethnic diversity to degrade our society.” Parsell also recommended a video supporting white supremacist themes. [Editor’s Note: This was an interview with Jared Taylor available here.]

Parsell also defended Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s slaughter of “Marxist insurgents.”

“At least Pinochet’s actions were justified by the defense of the rule of law, common decency, and the promotion of free societies,” he wrote.

{snip}

Dutson said Parsell’s comments about race were a complete divergence from MHPC’s “value system.” In his statement to Tipping, he wrote, “MHPC is a strong advocate for the liberty and prosperity of all Mainers, and we deplore the concept of race-based politics.”

Dutson added, “It is unfortunate that we were unable to identify this core difference in perspective earlier, but we are thankful to the bloggers who brought this to our attention.”

{snip}