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Chance
09-27-2019, 05:29 PM
From BBC News (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49857358):


An Iowa newspaper journalist who exposed racist tweets by a sports fan at the centre of a viral charity fundraiser has himself been fired after his own offensive posts resurfaced.

Des Moines Register reporter Aaron Calvin has lost his job after his profile of Carson King triggered fury.

....

Carson King, an Iowa State University football fan, found unexpected fame on 14 September after his hand-drawn cardboard sign requesting donations for his "Busch Light Supply" was featured in the background of an ESPN broadcast.

After initially receiving around $600 from amused sports fans, the 24-year-old announced the money would be donated to the local children's hospital, causing donations to skyrocket.

Venmo, the money-transferring website that Mr King had cited on his poster, and Anheuser-Busch, the brewer of Busch Light lager, offered bumper donations, in addition to a multitude of Iowa businesses, totalling $1.8m (£1.5m).

It was around then that Des Moines Register reporter Aaron Calvin began writing a feature on Mr King, which was published on 24 September.

....

Online backlash against the backlash built even before the Des Moines Register article was published, and Twitter sleuths began uncovering Mr Calvin's own statements that mocked same-sex marriage, domestic abuse and included a racial slur.

In a contrite tweet, he wrote: "Hey just wanted to say that I have deleted previous tweets that have been inappropriate or insensitive.

"I apologise for not holding myself to the same high standards as the Register holds others."

His apologetic tweet was deleted, too.

Drang
09-27-2019, 05:44 PM
The best part is where the Des Moines Register reported that the guy has raised up to one and a half million dollars "in controversial fundraiser."

I'm at work, or I'd embed the tweets from iowaHawk.

RevolverRob
09-27-2019, 07:11 PM
I appreciate karma.

One guy takes a fortunate turn of events to raise money for charity, the other takes it as an opportunity to profit.

One still raises money for charity, the other loses his job.

BehindBlueI's
09-27-2019, 07:40 PM
Holy shit, a 16 year old was edgy and perhaps engaged in attention seeking behavior. Thank God for the media to alert us to this new and important phenomena.

I am so glad social media, cell phones, etc. didn't exist when I was a teenager.

Stephanie B
09-27-2019, 07:48 PM
I am so glad social media, cell phones, etc. didn't exist when I was a teenager.
No kidding. We got to do stupid shit without it following us for the rest of our lives.

Sensei
09-27-2019, 08:22 PM
Holy shit, a 16 year old was edgy and perhaps engaged in attention seeking behavior. Thank God for the media to alert us to this new and important phenomena.

I am so glad social media, cell phones, etc. didn't exist when I was a teenager.

Funny how we rarely hear about social media saving someone’s life. Yet, everyday another life is ruined by the desire to broadcast one’s life to 6 billion people. Then, there is the more subtle tolls on productivity, intimacy, etc.

TheNewbie
09-27-2019, 08:55 PM
The sports writer is a vile low life scum bag. Not because he posted stupid shit at some point, but because he exposed tweets some dude wrote 8 years earlier when the guy was 16.


MORON low life. The guy deserves to be fired. Not because of the tweets, but because of exposing the other person's posts for no good reason.

JAD
09-27-2019, 09:34 PM
No kidding. We got to do stupid shit without it following us for the rest of our lives.

Well, you know, herpes.

Drang
09-27-2019, 10:58 PM
The best part is where the Des Moines Register reported that the guy has raised up to one and a half million dollars "in controversial fundraiser."

I'm at work, or I'd embed the tweets from iowaHawk.

1177577260771139584
1177583422929330177
And the one that illustrates just how fucked up this thing is:
1177585020946604032

Greg
09-27-2019, 11:19 PM
Twitter causes dain bramage.

Drang
09-28-2019, 12:55 AM
Twitter causes dain bramage.

Trust me, my dain was bramaged long before twitter came along.

Stephanie B
09-28-2019, 09:49 AM
Well, you know, herpes.

Remember when herpes was the worst thing you could contract?

okie john
09-28-2019, 12:22 PM
No kidding. We got to do stupid shit without it following us for the rest of our lives.

Thank God for this. I’d be unemployable.


Okie John

Wingate's Hairbrush
09-29-2019, 12:02 PM
Followed this when it first broke, and wanted the reporter to get his comeuppance even though at the same time I feel for anyone who's just lost his livelihood over generally dumb shit.

That said, undiscussed in all this is that it was his editors who made the decision to run the story; not a peep from management about their own culpability or professional fates, just that it was a "really hard decision" to post dude's tweets from teenagerdom.

Reporter doesn't decide what gets published, they do, but he takes the hit so they don't.

A pox on them all, is my point.

Just sayin'.