Local meteorologist abruptly fired after social media post criticizing Musk’s 'Nazi salute'

22 January

A local TV meteorologist in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is now out of a job after a pair of posts criticizing the world's richest man.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported Wednesday that meteorologist Samantha Kuffel has been fired from local CBS affiliate WDJT-TV following two posts to her personal Instagram account. The posts in question were critical of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's gesture at an inauguration day rally that fascism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat called a "Nazi salute" that was "very belligerent."

Kuffel's staff photo and bio were both removed from WDJT's website on Wednesday afternoon, and employees were sent an email notifying them that their colleague was "no longer employed at CBS 58" and that "a search for a replacement is underway." The station didn't give any further explanation for Kuffel's firing, and Kuffel had not responded to an AlterNet email requesting comment as of publication.

Kuffel's LinkedIn profile shows that she had been at WDJT since December of 2019, and was a meteorologist for three years at News 9 in Wausau, Wisconsin prior to her most recent role. According to the Journal-Sentinel, Kuffel's firing came after conservative Milwaukee talk radio host Dan O'Donnell tweeted screenshots of Kuffel's posts on his X account. O'Donnell called her posts "vulgar" and asserted that calling Musk's gesture a "Nazi salute" was a "lie."

"Dude Nazi saluted twice. TWICE. During the inauguration," Kuffel wrote in one post. "You f— with this man, I don't f— with you. Full stop."

The second image Kuffel posted showed Rob McElhenney's character "Mac" from the sitcom "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" saying: "Screw that old b—. He's a Nazi."

On Tuesday, Berlin-based newspaper Die Zeit published an op-ed from journalist Lenz Jacobsen, who wrote that "anyone who raises their right arm in a sweeping and diagonal manner several times during a political speech in front of a partly right-wing extremist audience is doing the Hitler salute." The featured image for the op-ed showed an image of Musk making the gesture, but with the salute cut out, as it is a crime in Germany to make that gesture in public. Jacobsen argued that "the gesture speaks for itself," and that there was "no need to make this unnecessarily complicated."

Click here to read the Journal-Sentinel's article in its entirety.

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