Washington Free Beacon reporter Elizabeth Harrington discussed a Google employee who was fired for a memo about the company's diversity practices, saying Tuesday that Google does not want any "diversity of thought."
Harrington said on Fox News that engineer James Damore was essentially fired for committing a "thought crime." Rather than being anti-diversity, Harrington said, as it was depicted in much of the media coverage, Damore's memo delved into the biological differences between men and women, the nature of the tech business, and how Google's diversity initiatives were flawed.
Google's new diversity vice president put out a statement that the company would continue to be committed to diversity in the wake of Damore's firing.
"James Damore did not say that he was against diversity. What that statement is saying to me is yes, we want diversity and inclusion of different races, genders, sexual orientation, but they don't want any diversity of thought, and that's exactly what James Damore offered," Harrington said. "A different view on this whole discussion of gender and women in STEM, and he offered a different view ... Google said no, thank you, we are only on the left."
Damore noted in his writing that he was concerned about Google's intolerance for conservative views.
"I hope it's clear that I'm not saying that diversity is bad, that Google or society is 100% fair, that we shouldn't try to correct for existing biases, or that minorities have the same experience of those in the majority," Damore wrote. "My larger point is that we have an intolerance for ideas and evidence that don't fit a certain ideology."
Harrington said people who called it an anti-diversity screed did not read it.
"The scary thing is if you're fired for your thought, for essentially a thought crime at Google, this company knows a lot about all of us ... It's a little creepy at the end of the day if they're firing and going after people for just their beliefs," she said.