(Warning: LONG post) So if you're a college football fan, you might watch College Game Day on Saturday mornings. And if you do, then Saturday September 14th, maybe you caught this guy on television: In the aftermath of the telecast, Mr. King happened to check his Venmo account and was startled to find $400 donated from fans across the nation who had seen his sign. Eventually, the story went viral and Mr. King decided to donate ALL proceeds received (less the cost of 1 cold pack of beer) to a childrens hospital in Iowa. As a result over $1,000,000(!) was donated to his venmo (and counting). At this point Busch Beer (and Venmo) decided to get involved by also donating money to the cause as well as giving Carson a 1 year supply of beer with his face on the cans. Pretty cool right? At this point, the local Des Moines register newspaper decided to write a story highlighting Mr. King and the viral story and assigned one of their "staffers" to do background research. While in the course of completing the research they discovered 2 Tweets from 8 years prior (when Carson King was 16) that would be considered racist and very inappropriate. (to say the least). Despite the "feel good" nature of the story, the Register decided to run with its story... including the offensive tweets. As a result, Busch Beer cut all ties to King and more importantly the donations to the childrens hospital slowed dramatically. Meanwhile, Mr. King has been forced to answer questions about his past and his character as a person all as a result of his involvement in the story. In fairness to Mr. King, he has owned up the Tweets and has apologized for them. It is also noteworthy to state the tweets were apparently citing quotes from the comedy television show "Tosh". Now the twist: The Des Moines Register had no issue with exposing the tweets of this kid from 8 years prior when he was 16. This alone angered many. What they apparently were COMPLETELY unaware of is that the Staffer (Aaron Calvin) who did the research and contributed this information to the story has a pretty sordid tweeting history itself. So much so that hundreds of outraged people copied the offensive tweets and sent them to the Des Moines Register twitter account in an outcry against the blatant double standard. As a result of the twitter storm blowback that has grown from the revelation, the DM Register felt obligated to post its reasoning behind publishing the "tweet info" and why it felt it was "in the public good" to add this info to the otherwise feel good story. The backlash against the DM Register (and Mr. Calvin) has been public and swift including many cancellations of subscription for the blatant hypocrisy and double standard they showed with regards to the people involved. The furor has grown to the point that the Register felt the need to post the following tweet today: With any luck, perhaps this blowback to a "legitimate media source" will make folks think twice about publishing future "cancel culture" stories like this or at least do a better job of weighing the "public need to know". I certainly hope so.
No, you shouldn't be digging through the post history of a minor as a professional journalist. That is a low blow and I doubt many would side with the newspaper. Also, the only people I care about having a history of racist or bigoted remarks are public figures of power such as politicians, educators and law enforcement figures. Even then it still depends on when they said it, how long ago and other factors if I feel they need to be 'cancelled" aka removed from their position of authority. I couldn't give two ***** about a random college student posting racist things when they were a kid unless they show a repeated behavior with threatening language. My point is context matters a lot.
It was the post history of an adult that posted things as a minor. But it's not so much cancel culture as much as racist culture with the bill coming due. Same thing with folks like Nick Bosa. The people not targeted by the hatred are always more sympathetic. When the shoe's on the other foot their attitude tends to change. I don't care either way but people in that community have every right to pursue it if they want. It's their community.
UPDATE: The DM Register fired the staffer/reporter. Interesting that the editors get to keep their jobs though. Same as it ever was.
