Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin fired after LeBron's reaction to wrongly reported fake activism

Editor's note: Almost 3 weeks subsequent to the publishing of this story, Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin wrote an opinion piece in USA Today in which she clarified the sequence of events that took place before and after what she dubbed as her '17 seconds of infamy'. 

Moriarty-McLaughlin primarily clarified the following claims:

1. That she was not posing for an Instagram photo to portray herself as a volunteer
2. That the denunciations of her behaviour by US publications and celebrities like LeBron James and Pink were based on incorrect facts.
3. That the person who recorded the video of her attempting to help - not pose - was her father and not her boyfriend.
4. The quote attributed to her - “Good job guys, BLM” - was by one of the hecklers off camera.

The full clarification may be found here.

Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin was reportedly fired by The Washington Examiner after she was captured pretending to be an activist for the sake of social media popularity. Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin, reportedly a journalist, was subject to heavy criticism on social media after a video went viral on social media where she appeared posing with an African-American construction worker with a power drill in her hand. The journalist received a lot of flak on social media for all the wrong reasons after her reported 'fake activism' mishap was blown out of proportion by NBA star LeBron James and singer Pink.

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Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin fake activism: LeBron James on Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin

The video, which went viral on social media, saw a woman - later identified to be Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin -  posing with the construction worker with a drill in her hand. She then hands him the power tool and can be heard saying, "Thank you so much." Moriarty-McLaughlin then enters into a black Mercedes-Benz along with a man, who was seen clicking the photo. The allegedly staged set-up to get likes on Instagram angered LeBron James, who has been busy speaking out against police brutality in the wake of the death of George Floyd.

LeBron James retweeted the video with a series of emojis to express his disappointment. It was later reported that Moriarty-McLaughlin deleted all her social media accounts in the aftermath of the incident.

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Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin fired

Within 24 hours of her video going viral, Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin was reportedly fired by The Washington Examiner. Yashar Ali, a contributor for the New York Post, broke the Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin fired news on social media. The reports were later confirmed by the Daily Mail, that claim about a spokesman for The Washington Examiner addressed her firing after the reported staged incident. 

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Who is Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin? Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin fake activism

A senior at UC Santa Barbara, Moriarty-McLaughlin worked as an intern for The Washington Examiner. As per reports, she was a political commentary writer for the publication and also contributed content for the Spoon University. The 'Fiona Moriarty-McLaughlin fake activism' video instantly shot her to negative limelight. Users on social media even blasted her wrongly for trying to capitalise on the turmoil in the United States. 

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