Alexander Smith’s PowerPoint presentation doesn’t appear designed to court controversy. The slides, focused on declining maternal health in Gaza, cite public health data from the United Nations and World Health Organization. His employer, the U.S. Agency for International Development, had selected him to share it at the government agency’s Global Gender Equality Conference.
But just before the conference, an issue of contention emerged.
A single slide mentioned international humanitarian law in context of the health crisis in Gaza. USAID staff cited the slide and discussion of international law as potential fodder for leaks, documents and emails Smith shared with The Intercept show. Despite Smith’s willingness to make revisions, his presentation was eventually canceled. On the last day of the conference, he found himself out of a job.
“I thought it is really obscene that misinformation can go out freely out into the world [about Gaza], but I can’t talk about the reality of starving pregnant women,” said Smith, who worked as a contracted senior adviser at USAID on gender and material health. “We can’t even whisper about that in a conference on that topic.”
Ah the land of the free
BTW, this is a real violation of free speech… Negative consequences from the government for speaking… Even in the context of your own work responsibility
No, it’s not, the governemnt can censor its own workers or speech that its workers make. The government can censor itself.
He didn’t even make the speech. Nothing he did could be considered misconduct or insubordination.
A government employee will be censored for the speech that that employee puts out, full stop.
Same way as if that employee put out a hate filled speech about gay people.
True, but in this case he hadn’t even put it out at all yet.
Did you even read my comment?
Aside from the correctness of the ruling or this situation. I’m guessing if Citizens United ruled ‘money equals speech’, then making/distributing a powerpoint probably also will be categorized as ‘speech’.
It’s a violation of free speech, it’s just not a violation of US law. Free speech is not the first amendment.
So Americans only have free speech when the government says it’s ok?
I’m mean, I know freedom of speech is a narrower concept than most people realize but if the government can retaliate against you because you would share factual evidence as part of your job, then you guys really don’t have freedom of speech
I mean, I guess you guys beat North Korea in this topic and … That’s about it
It’s more like when you work for the government, you’re allowed to say what in a personal context. Once you start throwing around a title linked to the government, you’re no longer speaking as yourself, youre speaking as the government. The government can tell you what the government is allowed to say.
It’s the difference between an employee of the coast guard joining Greenpeace vs. That employee publicly saying the United States Coast Guard is joining Greenpeace. The coast guard can’t fire an employee for their own political beliefs, but they can totally fire a guy for saying shit the coast guard doesn’t want while representing the coast guard. Public speaking and seminars and shit like this have explicit rules about who can say what and when as a government employee in an official capacity.
‘A single slide mentioned international humanitarian law in context of the health crisis in Gaza.’
“I wasn’t planning to stand up and yell ‘Israel is committing genocide,’” Smith said. “I was stating the laws.”
I don’t understand resigning versus letting them fire you and then taking it up with a lawyer.
Is this a first amendment violation because this person is a govt employee?
Government employees in their official capacity can be limited, but not in private capacity. So if he’s speaking officially on behalf of his government employer they can decide what he can say.
He was also a contractor. Not sure if that makes a difference.
Tell the truth, get fired.
this is more like openly trade ideas about the possibility of stating legal facts
Or even openly plan to tell the truth, it seems.
The only real cancel culture.
How? It’s not easy or quick to fire a government employee. It can take months.
In the US, many government workers are contractors, who are easier to fire. Full time employees of the government are less common, and as you said are harder to fire, get better benefits, etc.
It should be noted that this shift has happened in the last 30 years or so. Before that civil servants were the norm and contractors the exception. Civil service used to be a very good job that had some of the best benefits you could find, including some of the last remaining pension programs. You could live a very decent middle class life being a civil servant. Contractors are no cheaper for the government but it does move the liability from them to a 3rd party private employer. And now all the money goes to the business men who get the contracts and pay their employees a pittance with nearly no benefits.
Everything you said is still true. As long as you are an office worker that’s all correct. The government does still contact out most work but most offices still have plenty of government employees. It’s just now the government is more of an oversight and managerial role for 80% of it’s employees. Besides things like hr and finance. It’d be nice if the government actually did things again.
Outside of leave accrual (which is still inferior compared to the EU), benefits and pay for the average government worker aren’t really any better at this point. Plenty of supervisors pulling 100-150K+, but that usually also includes having to live in high cost of living areas like DC.
He wasn’t fired, he resigned. It also mentions he was a contractor, not an employee.
Media literacy tip: Headlines are written to get clicks, and shouldn’t be trusted. This headline says he lost his job, and he was being paid by the government so it’s not a straight up lie that he lost his government job. But the headline is meant to lead you to assume that he was a government employee that was fired. A headline like “Government Contractor Resigns after Presentation on Gaza was Cancelled” would be more accurate but lead to different assumptions which would be less likely to lead to clicks.
Late last week, Smith said he got a call from the company that contracted his position with USAID. He was told he could either resign or be terminated over “personality differences.”
Forcing someone to either resign or be fired is pretty much firing them.
It really isn’t. He’s a contractor it’s part of the deal, you get paid more money, but contract can be ended at any time. They decided to end the contract and gave the option to resign.
And that “contract ending” (firing) came about because of his views on Israel’s Genocide. Him being a government contractor is besides the point since there was almost certainly governmental pressure to remove him. Whether it was hard or soft pressure.
You’re making a lot of assumptions based solely on the word of a scumbag contractor that made a living siphoning off money that could go to impoverished countries by giving bullshit powerpoint presentations.
Well you’re making a whole lot of assumptions yourself. And mine are based on Occams Razor and the US governments consistent actions to stifle free speech that is critical of Israel. The US government has a vested interest in stopping people from revealing the horrors of Israel’s Genocide.
Yeah… you don’t understand Occam’s Razor. The simplest explanation is they cut the guy loose because he’s wasn’t worth the money they were paying him.
Piling a conspiracy theory on top of that is actually the exact opposite of Occam’s Razor.
Late last week, Smith said he got a call from the company that contracted his position with USAID. He was told he could either resign or be terminated over “personality differences.”
Yeah, it was entirely his choice to resign voluntarily /s
Are you implying someone put a gun to his head? If not, what exactly are you implying?
Loads of conspiracy theories abound, I think it’s important to be clear and not make nebulous implications.
Gun to his head? Conspiracy theories? WTF?
How is ‘resign or be fired’ in any way a ‘voluntary’ resignation?
They could’ve just fired him. He’s a contractor, they just end the contract. That’s what it means to be a contractor.
They gave him an option to resign, but they didn’t have to give him that choice.
In hindsight they shouldn’t have given him that option, the whole point of that is preserve everyone’s reputation. Instead this guy publicized it so it would’ve been easier to just end the contract.
I mean the term firing isn’t really accurate when it’s a contractor. Anyway USAID contractors are the scum of the Earth, not having to pay him for bullshit powerpoint presentations that he just copy and pasted from un.org means more money could potentially be sent to developing countries.
Understand that USAID budgets a relatively meager $150 million for Palestinians and this guy’s pay for this Powerpoint presentation would likely be coming out of that budget. A lot of foreign aid never leaves the country and actually just goes to these contractors. They’re scum of the Earth grifters.
So dipshit shared classified information and got fired for it. Good to know.
Good riddance! USAID contractors are the scum of the Earth.
A lot of the foreign aid money that you’re told goes to a developing country actually stays in Washington DC area, siphoned off by these evil parasites.
I worked on a project where we identified the need to have a part time accountant to help a bunch of NGOs to get their books in order. USAID had money in the budget for this, it was all looking good. But then out of nowhere one of these bullshit contractors swooped in and instead of hiring a local accountant, the money instead went to the contractor who spent a week in the tourist area to give a few seminars in between trips to the beaches. Didn’t do jack shit to help anyone but made the equivalent to half a year’s salary for a local accountant which would have actually helped NGO’s that were teaching children how to read. He took all of that money for the week while he stayed at a fucking resort.
This guy would’ve probably made thousands of dollars (possibly >$10K) for his bullshit Powerpoint which was probably just stuff anyone can find on un.org. And it would’ve shown on the budget as foreign aid to the Palestinian people. Since the presentation was cancelled that money might actually get to the Palestinian people instead. Though who am I kidding, it will more likely go to another one of these assholes. But at least there’s a small chance some money might actually get to somewhere it can make a difference. If he showed the powerpoint he made by copying pasting stuff from un.org, it would’ve cost USAID thousands of dollars.
One less DC swamp rat siphoning off money from the developing world. Nothing of value was lost.
