A career official at the U.S. Agency for International Development said he was placed on leave after refusing an order to "violate the due process of our employees."
What they said was accurate and doesn’t need quotes around a single word unless it is implying that it might not literally be true. If they had said ‘illegal purge’ then sure, the quotes would make sense because purge isn’t defined in law.
The person also said refused but that word isn’t in quotes. That was literally true and didn’t need quotes either.
“I refused and have provided Acting Administrator [Jason] Gray with written notification of my refusal,” Gottlieb continued. “I have recommended in that written notification that his office cease and desist from further illegal activity.”
If you think Common Dreams is trying to downplay the illegal nature of the firings and not just following a normal journalistic practice, you have lost the plot. You can see quotes used in headlines like this all the time, like here.
Illegal should not be in quotes. The firings without due process is literally illegal.
It’s in quotes because it’s directly quoting someone (the USAID official).
What they said was accurate and doesn’t need quotes around a single word unless it is implying that it might not literally be true. If they had said ‘illegal purge’ then sure, the quotes would make sense because purge isn’t defined in law.
The person also said refused but that word isn’t in quotes. That was literally true and didn’t need quotes either.
If you think Common Dreams is trying to downplay the illegal nature of the firings and not just following a normal journalistic practice, you have lost the plot. You can see quotes used in headlines like this all the time, like here.
When reading this, I initially thought people had been fucking executed.
They are saving that for sweeps week.
Honestly, would not be surprised if it happened. That’s where my expectations are, just maybe not so openly.