Brendan Eich

Is User Pushback Against Eich's Year-Ago Ouster Taking Down Mozilla?
By Tom Blumer | March 8, 2015 | 11:19 PM EDT

It has been eleven months since the firestorm over Mozilla co-founder and just-promoted CEO Brendan Eich ended in his resignation. Eich's "offense" had nothing to do with how he planned to run the business. What led to his departure shortly after he was named CEO was that six years earlier he had given $1,000 to those who supported the California Proposition 8 ballot measure prohibiting same-sex marriage in that state. Proposition 8 won the approval of a majority of the Golden State voters in November 2008.

Those who remained at the firm, which produces the Firefox web browser and the Thunderbird email program, appear to have convinced themselves that they had to do what they did to stay in the good graces of users, who they must have figured almost universally accept politically correct precepts and sanctions against those who won't bow to them. How's that working out? The answer is "not well."

MSNBC Panel Members Find 'Disturbing Level' of Gay Rights Interest in 'Targeting People'
By Brad Wilmouth | April 19, 2014 | 4:27 PM EDT

On the Friday, April 18, All In show, during a discussion of the firing of former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich for simply donating to a political campaign opposing same-sex marriage, guest Richard Kim of the far left The Nation magazine intoned that he found it "disturbing" that gay activist friends of his have expressed interest in "targeting" more people who have made similar donations, and who have declared they should "find out where they live." Kim:

ABC Apologizes for Story That Connected Mozilla CEO to Hateful Westboro Baptist
By Scott Whitlock | April 11, 2014 | 2:04 PM EDT

ABC News Vice President Jeffrey Schneider has apologized for a story on his network that connected a CEO who supports traditional marriage to the Westboro Baptist Church and their offensive "God hates fags" signs. Mr. Schneider contacted the Media Research Center on Thursday after our social media department requested members call and complain about the comparison. 

Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich was ousted earlier this month when it was revealed that he donated $1000 in 2008 to Proposition 8. As Good Morning America reporter Linzie Janis explained the story on April 4, footage of the completely unrelated Westboro protesters holding "soldiers died 4 fag marriage" signs appeared onscreen. ABCNews.com offered this apology: 

NY Times: Mozilla CEO's 'Anti-Gay' Stance 'By Definition Disqualifying,' He Needed 'Rehabilitation'
By Tim Graham | April 5, 2014 | 6:59 PM EDT

Our web guru Steve Edwards passed along a tweet from Moe Lane that said  "New York Times confirms: Open Source advocacy is for liberals/progressives only. "

Lane linked to an obnoxious blog post by Farhad Manjoo in The New York Times titled “Why Mozilla’s Chief Had to Resign.” You see, “Mozilla is not a normal company. It is an activist organization.” And activists apparently find it very distasteful to be less than “militantly tolerant,” as Manjoo put it:

Business Insider and Slate 'Reporters:' 'Extremist' Mozilla CEO Akin to Supporter of Slavery
By Matthew Balan | April 4, 2014 | 10:10 PM EDT

Jim Edwards, the deputy editor of the Business Insider website, and Slate.com's tech reporter Will Oremus slammed former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich on the Friday edition of BBC World Service's World Have Your Say program. Edwards likened Eich's $1,000 donation in support of California's Proposition 8 to someone who "donated some money to the KKK." The editor also repeatedly accused the tech executive of "donating money that strip people of their civil rights."

The Business Insider editor later compared the former CEO's support of traditional marriage to supporting the "the civil right to own slaves," and defended this comparison, since "slavery is all about stripping other people of their rights, which is what being against gay marriage is all about." Oremus agreed with Edwards in labeling Eich's political donation as "beyond the pale," and defended the internal and external campaign by social leftists to force his departure: [MP3 audio available here]

MSNBC.com Attacks Mozilla CEO’s ‘Glaring Black Mark’ of Traditional Marriage Support
By Paul Bremmer | April 1, 2014 | 3:05 PM EDT

Uh-oh. The newly appointed head of a prominent company did something, six years ago, to signal his support for traditional marriage. Somebody call the thought police!

On Monday, MSNBC.com called attention to this horror in an article titled “Mozilla Under Fire for New CEO’s Anti-Gay Past.” The new CEO in question is Brendan Eich, who was Mozilla’s chief technology officer for nine years before the company promoted him last week. MSNBC writer Emma Margolin explained Eich’s “anti-gay past” in the article’s third paragraph: