The Denver Post on Monday said a sportswriter was no longer an employee of the paper after he tweeted his discomfort with a Japanese driver winning the Indianapolis 500 during Memorial Day weekend.
On Sunday Takuma Sato became the first driver from Japan to win the iconic race, prompting Terry Frei to dispatch this controversial missive:
The now-deleted tweet earned him plenty of backlash and perhaps cost him his job.
“We apologize for the disrespectful and unacceptable tweet that was sent by one of our reporters,” the Post wrote in a statement Monday. “Terry Frei is no longer an employee of The Denver Post. It’s our policy not to comment further on personnel issues.”
Here’s a sampling of the comments on Twitter in response to Frei’s tweet Sunday:
Frei issued a long-winded apology late Sunday, linking his sentiments to a Sunday gravesite visit of his father, who flew missions over Japanese targets during World War II.
That didn’t go over well either. Users called him a “racist” and an “embarrassment” and also criticized the effectiveness of the apology.
His employer also sent out an apology Sunday before announcing Monday that he was no longer with the paper.
This post has been updated to include news that Terry Frei no longer works at The Denver Post.