As Twitchy told you earlier, Aaron Calvin, the ace Des Moines register reporter who managed to dig up a couple of tasteless tweets Carson King sent at 16, is no longer with the Register after some of his own tasteless tweets were brought to light.
We've heard from hundreds of you about our Carson King coverage. We took appropriate action because there’s nothing more important than having readers’ trust. https://t.co/hnfCsjL8gD
— Des Moines Register (@DMRegister) September 27, 2019
BuzzFeed opinion editor Tom Gara, for one, thinks that’s an outrage:
The irony of someone who works at BuzzFeed being upset about something like this is not lost on us.
The worst part of this is the Des Moines Register talking about how their editors debated whether to mention the bad old tweets dug up by their reporter, decided to mention them lower in the story, but are now firing the reporter anyhow.
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) September 27, 2019
It doesn't matter if you have a long distinguished history or many Pulitzers or a deep pocketed owner, if you don't 1000% have your reporters back when they're under fire then you aren't institutionally worth a bucket of spit
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) September 27, 2019
Tom’s outrage is noted. It is not, however, taken seriously, because it’s ultimately not rooted in intellectual honesty.
Either old offensive tweets matter or they don't. It's as simple as that. It seems like you would carve out an exemption for the media, one you would deny to its victims.
Or maybe we could just stop doing "routine social media checks" (what a euphemism; it's oppo!) entirely. https://t.co/f8Ha15DmNP
— Esoteric Jeff (@EsotericCD) September 27, 2019
What happened with King, Calvin, and the Des Moines register is a case study in bad journalism. And, as tweeter @EsotericCD points out, even more than Aaron Calvin, the Des Moines Register looks petty, unprofessional, and shameful. Because they knew better, and they didn’t care.
Here's a novel thought: it's not newsworthy what a guy raising money for children's hospitals wrote on Twitter when he was 16. In fact, if discovered, it should be actively suppressed and hidden, not reported on. The public *shouldn't* have a right to know.
Crazy, I know.
— Esoteric Jeff (@EsotericCD) September 27, 2019
In all honesty, it's the *editor* (or however many editors that okayed the idea of discussing the kid's social media from when he was 16) who should have been fired here. This is a question of *news judgment* and judging that to be publishable or relevant is unforgivable.
— Esoteric Jeff (@EsotericCD) September 27, 2019
Those are the people who shouldn't be working in journalism, or should cede their positions to other, more balanced people. This reporter was basically just a drone (albeit a hypocrite). You can even argue that, if it's true he was doing what DMR policy was, he lacked agency.
— Esoteric Jeff (@EsotericCD) September 27, 2019
The DMR's stated reason for "routine social media background checks" of guys like Carson King was that they wanted to make sure he wasn't a fraudster, or had a past that might make ppl worry their $ would be misappropriated. Okay, fine. So why were his tweets as a 16yo relevant?
— Esoteric Jeff (@EsotericCD) September 27, 2019
The answer is, of course, that they weren't. But the editors thought "hmm, this is gonna get us clicks, so go with it." They certainly didn't believe it had any bearing on the story. Pure cynicism, or an internalization of horrible new principles in internet-age journalism.
— Esoteric Jeff (@EsotericCD) September 27, 2019
One thing I will add is that I do not, for one second, believe the @DMRegister's CYA piece when they claim that Anheuser-Busch suddenly cutting ties with Carson King on the very day the story broke had nothing to do w/the DMR's reporting. Do they really think we're that stupid?
— Esoteric Jeff (@EsotericCD) September 27, 2019
Do they really expect us to believe it was a cosmic coincidence, that it wasn't related either to someone from the DMR contacting A-B about King's tweets, or King himself notifying them about it b/c he knew he was about to be blown up by the DMR? An insult to the intelligence.
— Esoteric Jeff (@EsotericCD) September 27, 2019
And it undercuts my confidence in everything else they're claiming, because if they can lie to me so brazenly about the most important part of the story, who knows what else they're lying about?
— Esoteric Jeff (@EsotericCD) September 27, 2019
They don’t deserve the benefit of anyone’s doubt. Not anymore.
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