A former opinion editor at the Chattanooga Times Free Press was reportedly fired for writing a headline telling US President Barack Obama to 'shove it' critiquing his job plan for Tennessee people.
According to the New York Daily News, Drew Johnson changed the initial generic headline with appropriate language approved by the editor to something which read 'Take your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President: Your policies have harmed Chattanooga enough'.
The report said that Johnson has been reprimanded on 'numerous occasions' for changing headlines without his editor's approval. However, he dismisses those claims as 'bogus' and said that the paper fired him because he thwarted their goal to 'put on a good face' in advance of Obama's visit.
Johnson, who calls Obama 'untouchable', said that if he had used the phrase in regards to another politician there would not be the same outcry.
The paper's managing editor Alison Gerber said that Johnson had 'written freely' and his work had not been censored and added that he has previously authored multiple pieces critical of Obama and the paper even defended him from complaints by conservative readers on his libertarian stance on issues like gay marriages.
The report added that the paper's print version carried the controversial headline but its web version had been corrected which read 'President Obama's policies have harmed Chattanooga enough'.
