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Sven Sundgaard, a left-wing Minnesota weatherman, was fired from his gig at Minneapolis station KARE this week after he republished a Facebook post that smeared lockdown protesters as “white nationalist Nazi sympathizer gun fetishist miscreants.”
A screenshot of the Facebook post obtained by AlphaNewsMN shows that he published it on April 19th, two days after locals demonstrated outside the Minnesota Governor’s Residence in St. Paul to protest Gov. Tim Walz’s lockdown orders.
Originally written by Rabbi Michael Adam Latz of Minneapolis’s Shir Tikvah, the post derided the protesters as “armed extremists” as per their decision to practice their constitutionally guaranteed right to assemble in public and protest authoritarianism.
See the screenshot below:
The post drew limited backlash until AlphaNewsMN brought it to the wider public’s attention this week, at which point backlash swiftly erupted not only from the public but from notable figures as well, including former Rep. Jason Lewis.
“Today’s forecast: mostly sunny w/ a chance of idiocy,” he tweeted. “#Covid_19 models are about as accurate as his forecasts. @kare11 should fire him!”
The backlash from nationally syndicated conservative radio host Joseph John Pagliarulo was even fiercer.
Look:
.@svensundgaard You didn’t really call protesters — who have that right protected by the First Amendment, “Nazi sympathizer gun fetishist miscreants,” did you? I need to know before I expose you nationally tomorrow.
— Joe Pags Pagliarulo (@JoeTalkShow) April 30, 2020
Today’s forecast: mostly sunny w/ a chance of idiocy.
First ‘sports reporter’ @KFANRosen attacks the right to peaceably assemble.
Now ‘weatherman’ @svensundgaard does this. #Covid_19 models are about as accurate as his forecasts.@kare11 should fire him!https://t.co/awo2Wiesfo
— Jason Lewis (@LewisForMN) April 30, 2020
On Friday, KARE responded to the backlash by announcing Sundgaard’s termination via a Facebook post but attributing his ouster to “continued violations of KARE11’s news ethics and other policies.”
It’s not clear why KARE didn’t also issue an apology to the lockdown protesters. It’s also not clear what the other “violations” happen to be.
Look at the post below:
Due to continued violations of KARE11’s news ethics and other policies, we have made the decision to part ways with Sven…
Posted by KARE 11 on Friday, May 1, 2020
According to the Star Tribune, Sundgaard is a longtime left-winger who in 2015 smeared a group of protesters as racist for waving the Confederate flag at then-President Barack Hussein Obama.
“Hate and racism,” he said. “I had a great-great-grandfather who fought in the Civil War in the 38th Iowa Infantry. Injured because those, what’s the word we should use, morons and racists in the South wanted to preserve their way of life. They lost.”
“Actually what I’ve likened it to, and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration, let’s pretend that Germany were a state in the U.S. and they still wanted to fly the Nazi flag. Get real.”
The so-called “morons and racists” viewed things differently.
“We’re not gonna stand down from our heritage. You know, this flag’s not racist. And I know a lot of people think it is, but it’s really not. It’s just a southern thing, that’s it,” one protester said at the time to local station KFOR.
“I believe that it is a flag that should not come down. It is about history. It’s not about racism at all because both black men, as well as white men stood side by side. They fought together for the beliefs that they believed in. And this is our heritage,” another added.
The protests occurred a month after Obama said that the Confederate flag “belongs in a museum.”
Despite Sundgaard’s portrayal of Confederate flag lovers as racist whites, there are blacks who also appreciate the flag, including Byron Thomas, a former University of South Carolina student who penned a column in 2015 detailing his love of the flag and bemoaning the hatred and bigotry he experiences for that love.
Likewise, despite Sundgaard’s portrayal of lockdown protesters as “white nationalist Nazi sympathizer gun fetishist miscreants,” lockdown protesters are working-class Americans desperate to return to work, lest their businesses fall into bankruptcy and their ability to feed their families disappears.
Moreover, the notion that only whites oppose the ongoing coronavirus would certainly be news to Juan Desmarais, the owner of a barbershop in California. While his shop remained unofficially closed, though he still had to pay rent for the building, he’d been illegally taking clients at home to earn the money to pay his bills.
And this week he went ahead and just reopened:
Primo’s Barbershop reopens in Vacaville in defiance of shelter at home order for non-essential businesses.
“We are not in a pandemic state here in Solano County.”
Solano County (pop. 447,643): 5 deaths and 263 cases #Covid_19 pic.twitter.com/bT4Bbp0xpH
— Bob Redell (@BobNBC) May 1, 2020
“I took on the risk so I’m the one who is absorbing the costs. The only way to mitigate that is to do haircuts under the table and that’s exactly what we’ve been doing,” he said.
Is he a miscreant too, Mr. Sundgaard?
According to other lockdown supporters who appear to only see the world only through the prism of their own struggles — never mind the millions of Americans struggling to just survive — of course he’s a miscreant.
Look (*Language warning);
This idiot Juan Desmarais a barber in Vacaville, he is broadcasting on @CNN that he is “cutting hair under the table” and re-opening his barber shops defying state orders. What a moron!!!! And he doesn’t care if he gets Covid. He should be audited and fined. What a jerk. pic.twitter.com/dQ5ReVgl7q
— Ladyliberty2034 (@ladyliberty2034) April 30, 2020
This idiot Juan Desmarais in Vacaville, CA needs to be locked up. He is violating your order and opening up his shops called Primo’s Barbershop and putting people at risk. #Covidiothttps://t.co/vU2sbVLEil
— ThatGirlAtTheParty (@tgatp) April 30, 2020
This barber guy on CNN, Juan Desmarais is MAGA for sure. He’s selfish and throwing out alternative facts, left and right. Everything he is saying is wrong and selfish. 🙄🙄🙄
— Gerren Peterson (@GerrenPeterson) April 30, 2020
FYI, there’s nothing “wrong” with wanting to survive …
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.
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