Our brave media firefighters

[Black Diamond Vol]

Random guy in Iowa goes to "Gameday" for the Iowa/ISU game. Makes a funny sign asking viewers to send beer money to his venmo account. Viewers actually send money (because of course). He announces that rather than using it to buy beer, he will donate all proceeds to Iowa Childrens' Hospital. Anhueiser-Busch pledges to match. He ends up raising over $1M. What a heartwarming story, right?

Until the local newspaper goes digging up his old tweets from 2011, when he was 16. No good deed...

https://www.foxnews.com/media/des-moines-register-carson-king-aaron-calvin

[BanditVol]

Well, first of all, I am glad there is a backlash.  Way too much of the "social shaming" going on, it's out of control, and frankly I think a lot of the people targeted have good grounds for harrassement law suits.  If it ever happens to me, I am definitely going to consider that.

Having said that, he jumped the gun and reported it before the paper had a chance to publish it.  That's kind of on him.  That Anheiser severed their links with him is typical corporate spinelessness, but corporations rarely have a spine, which is odd, because after all, they are individuals in the eyes of the law.   

[Black Diamond Vol]

Well, first of all, I am glad there is a backlash.  Way too much of the "social shaming" going on, it's out of control, and frankly I think a lot of the people targeted have good grounds for harrassement law suits.  If it ever happens to me, I am definitely going to consider that.

Having said that, he jumped the gun and reported it before the paper had a chance to publish it.  That's kind of on him.  That Anheiser severed their links with him is typical corporate spinelessness, but corporations rarely have a spine, which is odd, because after all, they are individuals in the eyes of the law.   

At that point, what else was he supposed to do? The paper had already telegraphed their intent to publish by notifying A/B. Might as well get ahead of the story and tell it on your own terms.

[Creek Walker]

I should probably feel compelled to defend the newspaper, except there's no real defense for what the newspaper did. I can appreciate their lament that it's tough knowing what to publish and what not to; what's newsworthy and what isn't. I've issued my own statements making the same explanation. It's gut-wrenching (at least in a small town where everybody knows everybody) and you can't appreciate it until you've been there. But there was just no compelling reason to search through his social media history for 8-year-old tweets ... regardless of how old he was when they were made. It had zero bearing on the story. (Then there's the fact that he was a minor, and I still haven't figured out why there are apparently not-insignificant chunks of our populous that think it's okay to hold stupid statements someone made as a kid against them. We seal their criminal records [in most cases] for a reason, and criminal offenses are way more serious than diarrhea of the mouth.) In all the personal profiles I've ever written, I've never gone back 8 years into someone's twitter history and can't imagine digging through tens of thousands of tweets looking for something salacious. These reporters who've turned themselves into torchbearers for the social justice warrior movement must have way more time on their hands than ordinary people.

Regardless, as the FNC story pointed out, the timeline proves that the paper contacted Anheuser-Busch way before the story was printed. To leave that part out of their explanation to readers makes the entire statement junk that isn't worth the paper it's written on. So they don't get to use the defense that the guy broke the story before they did. They're solely responsible for pushing it out there.

Garbage like this is why people are sick of the antics of the mainstream news media.

[Black Diamond Vol]

I should probably feel compelled to defend the newspaper, except there's no real defense for what the newspaper did. I can appreciate their lament that it's tough knowing what to publish and what not to; what's newsworthy and what isn't. I've issued my own statements making the same explanation. It's gut-wrenching (at least in a small town where everybody knows everybody) and you can't appreciate it until you've been there. But there was just no compelling reason to search through his social media history for 8-year-old tweets ... regardless of how old he was when they were made. It had zero bearing on the story. (Then there's the fact that he was a minor, and I still haven't figured out why there are apparently not-insignificant chunks of our populous that think it's okay to hold stupid statements someone made as a kid against them. We seal their criminal records [in most cases] for a reason, and criminal offenses are way more serious than diarrhea of the mouth.) In all the personal profiles I've ever written, I've never gone back 8 years into someone's twitter history and can't imagine digging through tens of thousands of tweets looking for something salacious. These reporters who've turned themselves into torchbearers for the social justice warrior movement must have way more time on their hands than ordinary people.

Regardless, as the FNC story pointed out, the timeline proves that the paper contacted Anheuser-Busch way before the story was printed. To leave that part out of their explanation to readers makes the entire statement junk that isn't worth the paper it's written on. So they don't get to use the defense that the guy broke the story before they did. They're solely responsible for pushing it out there.

Garbage like this is why people are sick of the antics of the mainstream news media.

Not to mention that it didn't take much digging to find far more offensive content on the reporter's twitter feed. That tells me that the "routine background checks" the Des Moines Register performs on its subjects must be far more thorough than the ones it performs on its own employees during the hiring process.