WFMJ says ‘Straight Pride’ post made by Community Relations Director under investigation

UPDATE: WFMJ confirmed Tuesday that Chism Pinkard was fired. Read the updated story here.

ORIGINAL STORY: WFMJ TV says they are investigating a Thursday morning Facebook post by Madonna Chism Pinkard, the station’s Community Relations Director, which advocates for “Straight Pride” during June’s Pride Month, which is marked to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan.

“Celebrate Straight Pride,” the post read. “It’s natural, worked for thousands of years and you can make babies.”

“Early this morning, WFMJ management was made aware of an unauthorized social media post by a WFMJ employee,” the company responded in a Facebook post. “That post has since been removed. WFMJ is conducting an investigation into the unauthorized post. We are concerned by this incident and are moving forward with a thorough investigation.”

Pinkard has deleted the post and said “I apologize for the post that offended one of our viewers. I have removed it.”

The post was made on a personal Facebook account from Pinkard, where she goes by “Madonna Jean.” The account has the WFMJ logo and identifies her as Community Relations Director.

Both Jean’s posts and the station’s response prompted angry responses from Facebook users.

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This story was originally published June 6, 2024 at 5:29 PM.