Salt Lake Tribune journalist fired after offering to buy sexually explicit books for high schoolers

On Thursday, Schott took all his associations with the Salt Lake Tribune off his social media profiles and posted: "When news outlets that are supposedly protectors of the first amendment try to curry favor with the far right and wannabe fascists, you should take a hard look at whether that organization is serving the public."

Earlier last week, Schott posted a list of books that had been taken out of Utah's public school system that included novels such as "Blankets" by Craig Thompson as well as "Milk and Honey" by Rupi Kaur. In response to Utah taking the list of books out of schools, Schott posted, "These books are now banned in every school library. If you are a high school student who wants to read one of these books (and your parents say it's ok) I will purchase it for you."

Sources familiar with the matter confirmed to The Post Millennial that Schott has been fired from the paper. In addition, Utah state representative Matt MacPherson confirmed the firing on X.

In a thread showing Schott's post, Eric Moutsos reported on portions of just the two books in order to show what Schott was offering to purchase for the high school students in Utah.

"Blankets," a graphic novel, as well as "Milk and Honey" have sexually explicit pictures and language in the books. The list of all 13 books aside from the first two includes "A Court of Thorns and Roses," "A Court of Frost and Starlight," "A Court of Mist and Fury," "A Court of Silver Flames," "A Court of Wings and Ruin," "What Girls are Made Of," "Forever," "Tilt," "Fallout," "Oryx and Crake," and "Empire of Storms." The books will still be available at public libraries.

Although the Salt Lake News Guild did not explicitly reference Schott, the journalism union posted, "Wednesday afternoon, Salt Lake Tribune management fired one of our members without first consulting the union, in violation of status quo. We are concerned that management ignored its obligation to involve us and we are working with News Guild to determine next steps."

Schott has a history of left-wing activism and has spread false claims made by Antifa activists as well as claimed that TPM senior editor Andy Ngo "pals around with white supremacists and Christian nationalists."

Schott has also been known for harassing those who donated to the Freedom Convoy in Canada when their payments were doxed in 2022. TPM reached out for comment from the Salt Lake Tribune regarding him being let go from the outlet.