After saying she was deleting the Twitter app from her phone in January amid the Covington boys controversy, Kirsten Powers, a former Fox News analyst who now works at CNN and USA Today, is back on social media, admitting she's "not proud" of what she found upon self-examination.
"I have spent the last few weeks in a mostly Twitter free zone to spend time reflecting on what role I may have played in what indisputably has become a dangerously toxic culture. I am not proud of what I have found," Powers began.
1) I have spent the last few weeks in a mostly Twitter free zone to spend time reflecting on what role I may have played in what indisputably has become a dangerously toxic culture. I am not proud of what I have found.
— Kirsten Powers (@KirstenPowers) February 18, 2019
Then, in seven subsequent tweets, Powers detailed her concern.
2) I work hard to see every side of an issue and also speak up when I see a wrong. But in doing that I am too often judgmental and condemning--both on and off social media--in a way that is contrary to my belief system and my faith.
3) I want to stand on the side of justice and equality but also of grace and I have failed to do that. Part of grace is recognizing my own fallibilities and imperfect judgment and reminding myself that there but for the grace of God go I.
4) Yes, this applies in the Covington case. This will please nobody because I still believe the teenagers were disrespectful, but my tweets were lacking in grace. As a Catholic I felt duty bound to speak up and hold them accountable, but that really isn't my job.
5) I also don't believe these teenagers should be tarnished forever for what amounts to one really bad day. I know that black teenage boys don't get this benefit of the doubt or grace, but I want more black teenage boys to get this benefit, not fewer white teenage boys.
6) It should be said I have been an equal opportunity scold, and liberals have been on the receiving end of my judgement and I regret that as well. I am rethinking my view on Al Franken, for example, after hearing from many friends on the issue of the rush to judgement.
7) I often am too rigid in trying to be pure in my principles and don't leave enough room for this mess of life. So I'm writing this as an apology to both left and right and making a pledge to do better.
8) I also hope to be part of a conversation -- if we ever have it as a country -- about the path to redemption for people who have stumbled and even failed spectacularly. This is where I plan to put my focus and not on rendering judgements about other people's behavior.
On Jan. 23, Powers announced was taking the Twitter app off her phone, saying she was harassed on the platform for criticizing the Covington High School students' interaction with Native American activist Nathan Phillips.
"Every day I get up and say 'no more Twitter' and somehow end up back here," Powers wrote at the time to her more than 300,000 followers. "I always regret it. Deleting the app now."
Every day I get up and say “no more Twitter” and somehow end up back here. I always regret it.
Deleting the app now.
— Kirsten Powers (@KirstenPowers) January 23, 2019
On Jan. 22, as Breitbart News reported, "Powers bizarrely claimed on Monday that Covington Catholic High School students referred to a black classmate as a racial slur with silent hand gestures to their harassers -- who were actually saying the word."
Regarding Powers' comments on her return, Fox News anchor Brit Hume noted: "This takes a certain courage. Good for her."
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