Updated 7/5/2020 3:31 pm PST:
In an email to ESSENCE, Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin asked for a retraction and stated that she was not faking community service, but working on a story about “documenting the damage to Santa Monica”. Moriarty-McLaughlin linked to an op-ed that was posted to USA Today, which can be read here.
Earlier:
“Good job guys, BLM!” is what journalist Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin said after staging an act of community service in Santa Monica, Ca., on Monday.
Moriarty-McLaughlin hopped out of her car and asked a man who was boarding up a building after Sunday’s protests turned into looting. She then took a hammer and fake nailed something, while her boyfriend took a photo.
McLaughlin, who writes for the Washington Examiner, was outed by New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz on Twitter shortly after the video clip started going viral with a post from actor Johnny Sibilly.
Shortly after going viral, Moriarty-McLaughlin made all of her social media accounts private to avoid the backlash, but private accounts don’t interrupt a good social media dragging.
Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin and people of her ilk are exactly what’s wrong when you mix “influencer” and activism together when it’s all for the ‘gram.