Cari Gervin was a reporter and literary editor at The (Knoxville, Tennessee) Metro Pulse before the entire staff of the alt-weekly was cut Wednesday.
The former staff of The Pulse has been overwhelmed with and love and support from the community, Gervin said. But one reaction wasn’t so positive.
On Thursday, Gervin posted an image of a Facebook message that appears to be from state Sen. Stacey Campfield that read: “So do YOU have any comments now ;)”
The message from Campfield — whom The Pulse had a contentious relationship with — stood in stark contrast to reactions from the rest of the community, Gervin said.
Since the announcement, we have been overwhelmed with the amount of love and support we’ve received from the community, via social media, email, phone calls, and even a very large bar tab donated to us last night by a mix of friends and complete strangers. So to receive such a tacky, cruel Facebook message from Campfield this afternoon – especially since we have never communicated on Facebook and he had previously blocked me on the site – was especially distressing.
When reached by phone, Campfield declined to comment.
