SHOCKING

Laura Poitras: I Was Fired for Speaking Out About Reality Winner

The First Look Media co-founder was axed shortly after she spoke out about missteps by The Intercept that led to a source being arrested and jailed.

Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and filmmaker Laura Poitras announced on Thursday that two months ago she was fired suddenly from First Look Media, the company she helped found in 2013.

Poitras—who was the first to receive Edward Snowden’s cache of secret NSA documents—said she was given no explanation as to why she was fired, but it happened shortly after she shared concerns about The Intercept’s investigation into the handling of evidence from whistleblower Reality Winner. Winner was an intelligence analyst who was convicted in 2018 of “removing classified material from a government facility and mailing it to a news outlet” and has been in prison since.

“First Look Media’s decision to fire me after I raised concerns about source protection and accountability—rather than to demote or seek the resignation of anyone responsible for the journalistic malpractice, cover-up, and retaliation—speaks to the priorities of The Intercept’s Editor-in-Chief Betsy Reed and First Look Media’s CEO Michael Bloom,” Poitras wrote in a statement released Thursday.