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WHYY Ordered to Give Fired Comedian Jad Sleiman His Job Back

The broadcaster terminated the former Pulse producer after his "offensive" online comedy videos came to light.

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Stand-up comedian Jad Sleiman, whom WHYY fired as a producer of the Pulse after some WHYY executives got wind of his stand-up comedy videos

Stand-up comedian Jad Sleiman was fired as a producer of the Pulse after some WHYY executives got wind of his stand-up comedy videos (photo courtesy of Jad Sleiman)

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WHYY Ordered to Give Fired Comedian Jad Sleiman His Job Back

It seems like most of the time when comedians make the news these days, it’s because they’ve said something offensive, or at least something that somebody somewhere decided was offensive. Such was the case with Jad Sleiman, a Philadelphia stand-up comedian most of us outside of stand-up comedy circles had never heard of until public broadcaster WHYY fired him last January.

Sleiman was a producer on The Pulse, the weekly health-and-science show hosted by Maiken Scott. By all accounts, he did an excellent job. Indeed, as recently November 2022, just two months before his termination, Scott herself conducted a performance review of Sleiman, describing him as “Fully Successful” in his role and giving him high marks all around, according to court documents.

But trouble had already been brewing at WHYY for Sleiman. As most stand-up comedians do these days, Sleiman shared reels of his jokes on social media. Somebody at WHYY took notice that Sleiman was moonlighting as a stand-up comic in comedy clubs even though he had a doctor’s note that allowed him to work from home for WHYY thanks to his diagnosis with multiple sclerosis. Sleiman explained to management that doing stand-up comedy simply didn’t affect him in the same way that working from the office did.

The problem, though, was that management was now on to his social media accounts. They took a deeper dive and found some jokes that certainly strayed into what could be considered dangerous territory. There were jokes about Muslims. (Note: Sleiman is an Arab American who was raised in a Muslim family.) There were jokes about Asians. In one joke, he referred to female genitalia as “pussy” and “pussies” repeatedly. I could go on. Here’s one example:

Management took swift action and fired Sleiman, making it clear that his termination was due to his comedy videos.

Sleiman filed for unemployment, and WHYY fought it. But the station didn’t just fight. It sent two Duane Morris attorneys to represent WHYY, including Duane Morris vice chairman Thomas Servodidio.

Philly Mag reviewed the unemployment office’s decision. The unemployment “referee,” as they’re called, sided with Sleiman and determined that he was eligible to collect unemployment. In her findings, the ref summed up the bits WHYY had deemed offensive by writing that “the obvious theme of his performances … was social unfairness and hypocrisy rather than discrimination.”

She also noted that WHYY’s policies regarding this kind of thing — policies Sleiman said he wasn’t even aware of — were quite “broad” and that Sleiman’s boss, Maiken Scott, appeared to have no issue with Sleiman or his online presence, for which he used a stage name and never referenced WHYY or his position there. Further, the ref pointed out that management never asked Sleiman to take down the content in question. They simply fired him.

The ref came to that decision back in June. But Sleiman wasn’t done yet.

Through SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents some WHYY employees, Sleiman filed a grievance with the American Arbitration Association. He made many of the same arguments that he presented to the unemployment office and stated that WHYY had terminated him without just cause. An arbitrator held hearings in August and October and accepted legal briefs from both sides on December 1st. And on December 29th, the arbitrator found in favor of Sleiman and ordered WHYY to give him his job back, with full seniority and back pay.

The arbitrator broke down each joke in question to an almost ridiculous level of analysis but ultimately got to the heart of the matter, which was that WHYY was essentially picking out words without considering the overall context. And in any event, the station didn’t try to resolve the matter without ending Sleiman’s employment.

Here’s what the arbitrator wrote, in part:

In this case, although I found technical violations of the Social Media Policy, applying the extraordinarily low bar for “inflammatory,” I have not found that the violations come close to being egregious, as claimed by WHYY. In addition, I found that WHYY deprived him of due process by failing to get his side of the story before discharging him, and by failing to include Scott in the decision-making process. …

In brief summary, I conclude that WHYY did not have just cause to discharge, having rushed to judgment without first hearing Grievant’s side of the story and ignoring its obligation to invite Scott to review and approve the decision to summarily terminate Grievant’s employment.

The arbitrator also told Sleiman to remove any content deemed inappropriate by WHYY, which he tells Philly Mag he has done.

For its part, a WHYY spokesperson released the following statement to Philly Mag:

WHYY received notice on Friday, December 29, 2023 of an arbitrator’s decision regarding the dismissal of Pulse reporter Jad Sleiman.

We are evaluating the decision, any appeal options and next steps. While we do not agree with all of the arbitrator’s conclusions, we certainly accept the arbitrator’s decision that Mr. Sleiman needs to permanently remove all inflammatory or offensive social media posts as a condition of any future employment at WHYY.

WHYY, as a trusted news organization, has no tolerance for behavior that demeans any individual or group based on their race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual preference or other protected status. We will continue to expect all employees to maintain the highest journalistic and ethical standards in their work.

“Those executives who fired me, they don’t even know me,” Sleiman, who has temporarily relocated from Point Breeze to New York City, tells Philly Mag. “You have to almost purposefully misunderstand these jokes in order to cast them as something hateful. Their response was extremism on their part. And you know, WHYY is a public service. Just because somebody is an executive doesn’t mean they own it. So I look forward to going back to work, because I don’t think WHYY belongs to these ‘executives,’ and I can’t wait to say ‘good morning’ and ‘good afternoon’ to them every day. I’m not even sure what they do there.”

A New Era In Philly Politics?

With Jim Kenney out and Cherelle Parker in, it sure does feel like change is in the air. It sure does feel like we’re at a point where with lots and lots of hard work, good faith and compromise, we really do have a shot at becoming the Next Great American City. Or we could just go on being “corrupt and contented,” as Lincoln Steffens famously described Philadelphia in 1903. So what is going to happen? Here’s Philly Mag political correspondent Ernest Owens with his political predictions for 2024. Agree? Disagree? That’s what reader mail is for! (See above.)

Speaking of Reader Mail …

Well, well, well. You write a brief story about the Mummers and some of their controversial behavior, and you get lots of angry comments and hate mail. Call me shocked!

Here’s one of many examples that came in response to yesterday’s column, a column that actually pointed out that there wasn’t a lot of controversy to the 2024 Mummers Parade relative to some other years:

Shut the fuck up you nerd. I bet you are so disappointed that there wasn’t any real controversies that happened at the parade this year so you had to bring up a couple non “issues” that popped up. I don’t know who Jack Posobiac is but the fact that some cornball propagandist such as yourself called him “king of fake news” makes me want to check out his work. I guess it was worth it for you to write this bullshit because the only people who will read it are assholes like me that are Mummers fans and google searched for mummers parade and found your dog shit writing. — Chris

By the Numbers

3,074: Shooting incidents in Philadelphia for 2023, down from 4,043 the year prior but still way too high. Homicides wound up being down about 25 percent for 2023. Again, still lots of work to do.

3: Executive orders signed by Mayor Cherelle Parker on her first full day in office. One of those was declaring a public safety emergency.

$5.5 million: Asking price for Joel Embiid’s fabulous Philly penthouse.

And from the Sports Desk …

The Sixers had a swift start to their home rematch with the Bulls last night with a new starting lineup.

One result was a 22-2 run in the first quarter that left them up 43-18 at its close. It was 73-42 at the half, and though the Bulls went on an 18-0 tear in the fourth quarter — holding a bunch of our subs, including Kenny Lofton Jr. in his Sixers debut, scoreless for eight-plus minutes — the closest they could get it was the 110-97 final score. The maturation of Tyrese Maxey continues apace.

Joel Embiid racked up his seventh triple-double of his career and didn’t even have to play the final quarter to do so. The win brought their record for the season to 23-10, still in third place in the Eastern Conference. They don’t play again until Friday at 7:30 p.m., when they’ll host the Knicks. It’s good to have the Big Guy back.

In case you missed it, there’s a great Matt Gelb story in The Athletic on former Phils manager Charlie Manuel’s slow recovery from a stroke that robbed him of the ability to speak. The worst part for the team’s current front-office adviser? He couldn’t curse.

Any College Hoops News?

Uh, yes, but none good. The Penn Quakers went all the way to Alabama only to get blown out by the 25th-ranked Auburn Tigers, 88-68. On the slate tonight, George Mason visits La Salle at 6:30, St. Joe’s is at Rhode Island at 7, and it’s the Xavier Musketeers vs. the Villanova Wildcats at 8:30.

All Philly Today sports coverage is provided by Sandy Hingston.

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