NYPost journalist suggests killing April Ryan for asking a question

White House Correspondent April Ryan didn’t expect to receive a death threat from a fellow journalist Monday, but she wasn’t surprised, either.

While the vast majority of mostly White journalists asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about foreign geo-political issues, April Ryan focused her question on Black America.

“I had an in-depth conversation with Stevie Wonder last night, who is,” Ryan began before being interrupted by the press secretary.

“I love Stevie Wonder!” Jean-Pierre said.

Ignoring the blatant laughs from her colleagues in the briefing room, April Ryan continued asking her question.

“I had an in-depth conversation with Stevie Wonder last night, who is asking, requesting a meeting with the president.”

“He’s very concerned about the Black agenda falling along the wayside and issues like laws of 50 years ago that are now being abolished or gutted, to include issues like the Voting Rights Act, what happened in Arkansas last week, affirmative action, Supreme Court as we’ve seen it, ban on books — and he’s also even brought up issues of the Congo and the lack of information from the White House,” Ryan said.

New York Post journalist posts violent tweet targeting April Ryan

She explained how Stevie Wonder, more than just a musical icon, has met with multiple presidents and led the push to make MLK Day a national holiday.

“Is this President amenable to meeting with Stevie Wonder who has these concerns,” April Ryan asked.

The response from the press secretary didn’t lead to major news headlines as the temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas take center stage.

However, one New York Post journalist took to X (Twitter) with a response that could incite violence against the only veteran Black journalist to have worked in the White House since the presidency of Bill Clinton.

“Good god someone needs to put April Ryan out of her misery,” Eddie Scarry posted.

As a writer for the Federalist and the New York Post, it appears Scarry isn’t worried about losing his job or damaging the reputations of these publications. As of Tuesday morning, his post remained up despite dozens of comments condemning it.

“This is what happens when you ask a legitimate question about a historically underserved community, in the White House briefing room,” April Ryan responded in a post. “Trust, I will not stop asking questions no matter how many threats come!

For many, perhaps even some Black folx reading the post, it may seem like harmless clowning. Yet in a country where several journalists have been killed in recent years, and where Black people face the highest rate of hate crime attacks, the post is far from funny.

Journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett risked her life to end lynchings

Journalists like veteran White House Correspondent April Ryan and New York Times Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones continue a legacy birthed by Ida B. Wells-Barnett.

Born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi in 1862, Wells-Barnett used her writing prowess to challenge lynchings in the South. At least 4,400 racial terror lynchings occured in the U.S. between 1877 and 1950, according to an interactive map from Equal Justice Initiative.

Despite journalism being the Fourth Estate, the last check on power, White reporters failed to question the diabolical practice.

Before her brave and dangerous reportings, published in her famous work “The Red Record,” journalists even in the North reported on lynchings as if they were a natural part of law and order.

An article published in the Journal of Black Studies sums up the White media’s 19th and early 20th century role in covering lynchings:

Public opinion and elites, particularly in Southern communities, frequently viewed lynchings as necessary mechanisms to enforce racial norms…Thus, to report on lynchings was akin to reporting on unpleasant acts of nature such as earthquakes or floods; the events were unfortunate but necessary aspects of the order of things and
therefore grist for the newspaper’s mill.

“The Press and Lynchings of African Americans” (page 318)

Risking her own life, Wells-Barnett challenged the idea that lynchings should be reported on in a “neutral, unbiased way.” She forced the industry to report lynchers as the oppressors and lynched Black people as the victims.

As a co-founder of the NAACP, Ida B. Wells-Barnett was no stranger to hate-filled attacks. White newspapers called her a “Black scoundrel.” A White mob burned down her newspaper office in Memphis in 1892. She was out of town and continued to write unapologetically.

Black journalists like April Ryan face hate from within and without

Likewise, White House Correspondent April Ryan is no stranger to hateful rhetoric from White men in positions of power or influence.

During the presidency of twice-impeached criminal defendant Donald Trump, he repeatedly told her to sit down during a question about the midterms, and he once called her a “loser” on national television.

Like Ida B. Wells-Barnett before her, April Ryan doesn’t appear phased by the hate from a White journalist.

“This is what happens when you ask a legitimate question about a historically underserved community, in the White House briefing room,” Ryan posted in response. “Trust, I will not stop asking questions no matter how many threats come!”

Would she be facing death threats from a fellow journalist if she were a different skin color? Would Eddie Scarry be bold enough to suggest someone kill a fellow journalist if he were Black, Arab or Muslim instead of a White-passing Latino?

With only six percent of U.S. journalists identifying as Black, according to Brookings, it’s unlikely the hate will subside. However, it appears April Ryan plans to continue moving in the spirit of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, who famously said:

“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”

Correction: This article has been updated. Eddie Scarry is not White. He’s a White-passing Latino.