He didn't read the room, and now he's paying for it.
When it all kicked off he was in the mindset that most Everton supporters would swallow the slur/attack on a few fellow fans that they'd transgressed the line of decency and so he and Boyland especially did what they always did: parrot the official line.
They didn't know wtf to do when all our fans rejected that line and fought back. He shat his kecks with his mate Boyland but tried (incredibly) to go for what they thought was 'neutrality'...a position made to look like cowardice in the face of someone from the outside like Ian Wright who simply held his hands up and said "I was manipulated and got it wrong. Sorry, you're being run by a shower of duplicitous tools".
O'Keeffe and Boyland are finished. Absolutely done for. If I were their employer at The Athletic I'd be taking a very close look at this affair and start wondering who I was emplying and why I should continue to do so.