TIME Magazine Reporter Deletes Tweet About Killing Julian Assange

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By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai2013-08-18 16:50:03 UTC

Tweeting about somebody's death by drone might come across as careless and insensitive. Especially if you are a Time magazine senior correspondent wishing for the chance to write about the death of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

That's exactly what Michael Grunwald did on Saturday night — causing so much Twitter rage that he ended up deleting the controversial comment.

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"I can't wait to write a defense of the drone strike that takes out Julian Assange," he wrote in a tweet that has since been deleted.

Grunwald, after receiving countless tweets criticizing his statement, decided to delete it — but only after somebody pointed out that the tweet would give ammunition to Assange supporters.

Several journalists called Grunwald out. Gleen Greenwald said that "things like this make you not just understand, but celebrate, the failings of large media outlets." The Guardian's James Ball called it "idiotic and frankly disturbing."

Finally, Grunwald apologized for his words.

His tweet caught the attention of WikiLeaks, which asked Time to take measures against Grunwald.

For now, Time simply released a statement, distancing itself from the tweet: "Michael Grunwald posted an offensive tweet from his personal Twitter account that is in no way representative of Time's views. He regrets having tweeted it, and he removed it from his feed."

In the past, after WikiLeaks released thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables, several public figures, and commentators like Fox News' Bob Beckel publicly stated their support for killing Assange.

"Illegally shoot the son of a bitch," Beckel said.

Image: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

Topics: Drones, julian assange, time magazine, Twitter, U.S., US & World, WikiLeaks, World