In a post on X Thursday morning, PHNX denounced writer Gerald Bourguet’s comments and said they “made the decision to part ways with him.” PHNX, which is an outlet in the ALLCITY Network of local sports sites, added that “opinions expressed by our employees do not represent the views of PHNX or ALLCITY Network’ and that “we take matters involving violence very seriously.”
Bourguet was not mentioned by name.
After Kirk was gunned down during an event at Utah Valley University, Bourguet criticized the outpouring of support for the controversial Turning Point USA founder. In the first of four posts, Bourguet wrote that “‘political differences’ are not the same thing as spewing hateful rhetoric on a daily basis, and refusing to mourn a life devoted to that cause is not the same thing as celebrating gun violence. Just so we’re 100% clear on that.”
“Hateful rhetoric” is hardly an overstatement. Kirk was known for sharing bigoted far-right opinions, including warning his audience that gay people “want to corrupt your children” and arguing that “monogamous heterosexual marriage should be a prerequisite to adoption.” Kirk also said “Black crime” and “Black fathers abandoning the women they impregnate,” not racism, is the “real problem.” He called Martin Luther King Jr. “awful” and “not a good person.” He suggested that a Black pilot was “unqualified.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he compared university vaccine mandates to an “apartheid-style open-air hostage situation” and urged students to “fight back against forced campus vaccination.” He told a 14-year-old girl to go to college to find a husband and get her “Mrs. Degree.” After pop star Taylor Swift got engaged, he told her to “reject feminism” and “submit to your husband.”
Bourguet criticized Kirk’s downplaying of famine in Gaza (Kirk called images of starving children “propaganda”) and gun violence in schools (Kirk said that “it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment.”). Including the shooting of Kirk at Utah Valley University, there have been 47 school shootings this year, according to CNN. The same day Kirk was shot, another school shooting occurred at Evergreen High School in Colorado, wounding two students.
“Truly don’t care if you think it’s insensitive or poor timing to decline to respect an evil man who died,” Bourguet’s final post read. “Too many of you are more concerned with being polite and *appearing* to be good people rather than showing some damn backbone and standing on principle to condemn hate.”
A memorial formed at the headquarters of Turning Point Action, which Charlie Kirk founded.
Morgan Fischer
Bourguet’s post went somewhat viral. In less than 24 hours, his initial post garnered more than 553,700 views, 700 retweets and 3,300 likes. Bourget locked most responses to his tweets. The response was a mixture of disgust, praise and anger. Some commenters agreed with his post, while others criticized it as “shameful.” Phoenix New Times reached out to Bourguet but has not heard back.
Though Bourget’s posts seemed mostly to criticize the posthumous lionization of Kirk and the taming of his controversial legacy, right-wing accounts quickly latched onto his posts to claim he was reveling in Kirk’s death. Libs of TikTok, the right-wing troll account, posted Bourguet’s tweet amid a series of posts sharing online users' criticisms of Kirk after his death and tagging their employers while calling for their firing. The account’s post about Bourquet garnered 1.2 million views and 6,200 likes.
After Bourguet’s firing, TPUSA employee and conservative activist Tyler Bowyer thanked PHNX and the organization’s general manager, Greg Esposito, for “making the right decision.” “Won’t forget that,” he added. PHNX Sports and ALLCITY Network did not immediately respond to New Times’ request to comment. It is not clear if Esposito, a longtime Valley media figure, was the one to make the call on Bourguet’s firing or if the decision was handed down from above him.
According to his LinkedIn, Bourguet joined PHNX in 2021 as its lead Suns writer after years of basketball blogging. He has 43,000 followers on X. According to his social media accounts, he and his wife welcomed their first child in May. A GoFundMe has been set up to benefit him, with a goal of $10,000.
“Gerald decided to use his voice and his platform to courageously speak out on the injustices we see befall us every day in this country knowing not everyone shares the same opinions as he,” the GoFundMe description reads. “Because of this, Gerald was terminated from his long-time job with PHNX Sports.”
Despite widespread, bellicose claims from Republican and MAGA figures that “the left” and Democrats are responsible for Kirk’s killing, the shooter has not yet been identified and a motive has not been revealed. The agency released a photo of a person of interest on Thursday morning, but no one has been arrested.
