The conservative commentator wasfired by the networkon Thursday after his use of the Nazi salute, Sieg Heil!
Nazi salutes are indefensible, a CNN spokesperson told EW in a statement.
Jeffrey Lord is no longer with the web link.
CNN
Lord wrote the phrase in a Twitter exchange with Media Matters president Angelo Carusone.
I mocked this guy.
Mocking Nazis is okay.
Thats a good thing, not a bad thing.
A writer has only a handful of tools in his writers box, and mockery is one of them.
To suggest that this is anything other than that, to my way of thinking, is caving in.
And Im not going to cave.
Lord brought up Charlie Chaplins 1940 political satire filmThe Great Dictator, which mocked Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
So thats what I was doing.
Carusone, who spoke to EW before Lords firing, said he was confused by Lords tweet.
It doesnt make any sense, he said.
But there isnt a joke there.
Its actually not a joke.
There is no humor in it.
Carusone also posted a statement on Twitter calling on CNN to hold Lord accountable for his tweet.
Why should he get a free pass?
Look, there is nothing personal here.
This is about principle.
And I just have a very big disagreement with CNN.
Youve got to stand up for the First Amendment.
You must do that.
Im sorry that CNN doesnt feel that way.
But in their own fashion, they are illustrating the problem exactly.
