Story Views
Now:
Last Hour:
Last 24 Hours:
Total:

% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.

Meghan Murphy no longer works at rabble.ca, the Media Co-op has learned. Her contract as a part-time editor ended in March, 2016, and she is no longer on staff.

Murphy, in May 2015, was the subject of an open petition to rabble.ca. A substantial list of community organizations voiced a history of concerns with Murphy that remained unresolved. The main issues were around Murphy's denial of sex worker rights, as well as written content of hers that was considered transphobic and racist. The concerns are described at length in the the petition, which was written about a week after Murphy published a highly controversial story about Laverne Cox, a Black trans woman.

Currently, writing and podasts by Murphy continue to appear in the “rabble blogs” section of rabble.ca, re-posted from her own high-traffic website. Rabble blogs content is, as a general rule, unpaid. And rabble.ca confirmed to the Media Co-op that Murphy's writing on the site since March has been unpaid.

A central point of the petition to rabble.ca read, “we are writing to demand that you [rabble.ca] end your association with her [Meghan Murphy] as editor and columnist.”

A number of activists, contributors and organizations joined the boycott. Quickly, other organizations and writers came to Murphy's defence, penning a counter-petition. 

rabble.ca, after reviewing the matter, responded publicly two weeks after the original petition was launched. Part of the response, dated May 15, 2015, read:

“In our opinion, her [Murphy's] writing is not transphobic or racist although some readers criticize it for not taking a sufficiently intersectional stance. rabble.ca will not remove her past writing or bar future work from the site. However, at the same time we are planning to make changes to our style guide related to language around sex work and other issues on the site.”

The campaign calling for rabble.ca to end its affiliation with Meghan Murphy did not issue a response.

Murphy remained on staff as a part-time editor until March 2016.

When asked by the Media Co-op what led to Murphy's contract ending, rabble.ca would not disclose the reasons why Murphy is no longer working at rabble.ca, citing legal obligations to keep such information confidential.

Kim Elliott, publisher of rabble.ca, had this to say about Murphy's current relationship with the media outlet:

“Meghan transitioned to a contributor role within the organization, effective last March [2016]. As a contributor, she continues to contribute to rabble as a podcaster and blogger, and like all contributors she can pitch freelance pieces.“

While Murphy's blogs and podcasts have been re-posted to rabble.ca, the Media Co-op has confirmed with rabble.ca that Murphy has not been paid for writing since her contract ended in March, 2016. She could, according to rabble.ca, pitch articles and be compensated for them, but that has not yet happened, at least since Murphy's contract ended. 

Murphy indicated to the Media Co-op that she has proposed a paid column to rabble.ca. Publisher Kim Elliott, when asked about this, said the proposed column has not been confirmed. Elliott re-iterated that Murphy is currently not a paid contributor, but is a contributor like all other contributors, and can pitch freelance articles. 

In the original petition, the authors expressed their rationale for taking such an action: 

“We support working with people to transform their politics toward more equity and accountability. Despite endless attempts, Murphy has remained unwilling to evaluate her racism, transmisogyny and whorephobia. We've chosen to use an open letter as a medium, only after all other avenues toward accountability have been explored and have failed.“

When Murphy was asked recently by the Media Co-op whether her politics had changed since the petition, she responded, writing:

“If I were to 'transform my politics' based on this petition, it would mean a decision to no longer be a feminist, and to start supporting systems like patriarchy, capitalism, colonialism, and imperialism. Those behind the petition were anti-feminists, engaged in yet another a McCarthyite campaign to silence and no-platform women who speak out against oppressive industries and systems of power.“

In the fifteen months since the original petition, a number of individuals and organizations have maintained their boycott of rabble.ca, while others have returned, once again contributing written content and sharing rabble.ca articles on social media.

rabble.ca is not alone in the independent media landscape for having staffing and content controversies, a number of which have also led to boycotts, some loud and some quiet. For example, there have been a number of independent media outlets with sexual assault controversies around contributors and editors. In at least one such case, any on-record discussion of what had happened was met with threats of legal action.

rabble.ca has been publishing independent news and opinion since 2001.

(Disclosure: at the time of the petition in May 2015, the author of this article was writing freelance for rabble.ca. After the petition, he boycott writing for rabble.ca for four months, then began writing again. Compensation per article has ranged from $30 to $100. He has written fewer than 20 paid articles for rabble.ca in total, and 10 since the boycott.)