USA Today. | USA Today USA Today suspends columnist Glenn Reynolds for one month

USA Today has suspended the column of a conservative commentator for one month after he called for drivers to “run … down” demonstrators protesting police shootings in Charlotte, North Carolina Wednesday night.

"USA TODAY expects its columnists to provide thoughtful, reasoned contributions to the national conversation, on all platforms," Bill Sternberg, the editorial page editor of USA Today, said in a statement to POLITICO. "Glenn Reynolds’ Run them down' tweet, in response to a news report about protesters in Charlotte stopping traffic and surrounding vehicles, was a violation of that standard and can be interpreted as an incitement to violence. Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee who writes twice a week for USA TODAY, has apologized. His column has been suspended for one month."

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Reynolds was briefly suspended from Twitter late Wednesday after he sent the tweet in question. “Run them down,” Reynolds wrote in the tweet, which linked to a news story about demonstrators who had stopped traffic on a Charlotte highway.

The tweet was criticized as promoting violence against the demonstrators, who are protesting the deaths of black people at the hands of police after police in North Carolina shot and killed Keith Lamont Scott earlier this week. Some of those protests have turned violent, and North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory called for a state of emergency Wednesday night.

Reynolds defended his tweet on his personal blog, and he accused Twitter of being “out to silence voices it disagrees with or something.” Reynolds’ Twitter account was reinstated under the condition that he delete the tweet, he said Thursday.

In a statement on USA Today's website, Reynolds apologized for the tweet and said that the comment had been misconstrued.

"What I meant is that drivers who feel their lives are in danger from a violent mob should not stop their vehicles," he wrote. "...My tweet should have said, 'Keep driving,' or 'Don’t stop.'"

"I have always supported peaceful protests, speaking out against police militarization and excessive police violence in my USA TODAY columns, on my website and on Twitter itself," he added. "I understand why people misunderstood my tweet and regret that I was not clearer."

