UPDATE: Pennsylvania radio director resigns over Charlottesville rally support

Published 5:35 pm Wednesday, August 16, 2017

A Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania radio station staffer who allegedly posted video and tweets about a white nationalist rally has resigned after multiple advertisers cut ties with the company. 

In a statement released Wednesday announcing his resignation, David Reilly denied affiliation white supremacism and its related groups.  

David Reilly, director of new media at WHLM News Radio, attended an Aug. 11 rally of white nationalist organizations, which included neo-Nazis and white supremacy groups like the KKK, in Charlottesville, Virginia. He allegedly posted a video of the torch-lit march to YouTube and tweeted support of white supremacists, though his Twitter account is no longer active. 

Reilly confirmed that he attended the rally but said he was there as a private citizen, according to WNEP 16.

Joe Reilly, WHLM’s station owner and David Reilly’s father, said Tuesday the station had suspended his son pending an investigation. On Wednesday, the elder Reilly released a statement that included a quote from David Reilly. 

“I find myself in the precarious position to define who I am and what I believe,” David Reilly wrote. “I denounce Nazism, the KKK, Racism, White Supremacism, and political violence. The accusations that I am a White Supremacist, Nazi, Racist or anything of this kind is pure slander. Out of charity towards the community, and especially towards my parents, Nancy and Joe Reilly, I hereby tender my resignation from WHLM.”

The video, posted on Aug. 11 to a YouTube account named “Dave Reilly,” begins with aerial shots of the torch-lit march snaking through Charlottesville. The videographer later films fistfights between rally attendees and counter protestors before interviewing a rally leader.

The video is captioned with “#UniteTheRight” and David Reilly’s former Twitter handle, @DaveReillyMedia, and ends with a placard advertising the Unite the Right rally at Charlottesville’s Lee Park on Aug. 12.

The Unite the Right rally descended into violent clashes Saturday as rally attendees were met with anti-racist counter protestors. One woman was killed when a driver plowed his car through a crowd of counter protestors.

After the video and tweets came to light, local demonstrators picketed the WHLM station Monday evening with signs such as “WHLM EMPLOYS NAZIS” and “TURN OFF RACIST SCUM WHLM.”

“My friend and I decided he does not represent me,” Nate Wheeler, a co-organizer of the Bloomsburg protest, said. “You can be a racist, you can be from Bloomsburg, just don’t be a public racist from Bloomsburg. That’s where I draw the line.”

Two major advertisers, Turkey Hill Brewing Company and Bloomsburg University, pulled their ads from the station on Monday.

WHLM currently broadcasts Bloomsburg University sporting events, but university spokesman Tom McGuire said Tuesday their legal team is exploring options concerning those agreements.  

Other local companies continue to pull their ads from the station. A local professional theater company posted a statement to Facebook to explain their decision end their WHLM partnership.  

“Though we have many valued friends and colleagues at the radio station, the pervasive and reckless hateful ideology of one employee cannot and must not be ignored,” Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble’s statement reads. “We know firsthand that there are decent, worthwhile, genuinely good people at WHLM; we’ve worked with them for over a decade of partnership. They have families, they contribute to the community, they serve local institutions. Perhaps someday after it makes some changes, we can begin to rebuild our community partnership with WHLM. Until then, we will forge new partnerships, ones without ties to hate, intolerance, violence and ignorance.”

Sylvester writes for The Daily Item in Sunbury, Pa.