Twitter hates me. The Des Moines Register fired me. Here’s what really happened.

[Bigman38]

https://www.cjr.org/first_person/aaron-calvin-viral-story-tweets.php

The guy who wrote the infamous Carson King story with his view of what happened.

 

[CoachHines3]

dont give this loser clicks.

i dont need to hear his sob story.

 

[MJN]

Journalists are some of the most self righteous people. This kid is a classic example.

 

[Halincandenza]

Thought it was a well written article.

 

[BoxsterCy]

Most of the people who freaked out over this likely never even read the piece they were so "outraged" about. Kinda goes to what Obama was trying to get at the other day while addressing social media outrage.

 

[throwittoblythe]

Most of the people who freaked out over this likely never even read the piece they were so "outraged" about. Kinda goes to what Obama was trying to get at the other day while addressing social media outrage.

I didn’t get beyond the first few words of your post but HOW DARE YOU

 

[isufbcurt]

Sometimes it is just best to remain quiet, let people forget about it and ride off into the sunset.

This would be one of those times.

 

[herbicide]

To summarize, woe is me, finger shaking, etc. While he did have some valid points in there, the tone is off putting.

This thread will soon be found in the cave.

 

[JM4CY]

 

[chuckd4735]

dont give this loser clicks.

i dont need to hear his sob story.

Its a good article honestly. The kid was doing his job and at the direction of his editors, and he was vilified for doing so. The higher-ups at the Register deserves the blame on what happened, not one of its (former) entry-level employees.

 

[Rabbuk]

He has a bright future at Breitbart

 

[jsb]

Didn’t he already write this?

 

[BryceC]

This guy and the DMR literally just don't get what the blow back is from, why it happened, the circumstances surrounding it, etc. Plus, they are still making bad faith arguments:

"It’s clear to me now, though, that he was worried about personal blowback. As is common in the world of celebrity PR, he moved to get ahead of the details that would be revealed in the profile."

He doesn't know that and can't know that.

 

[Mr Janny]

Here's my hangup, and I don't know if it's the author's fault, or the DMR. If the bringing up of King's past tweets wasn't intended to hurt him, then why were they included in the profile at all? What purpose did it serve to publish them if it wasn't to hurt him? I get that running a background check is standard practice. But publishing those tweets wasn't just following procedure. The author thought it was newsworthy and the editor let it be published. I've never heard a satisfactory answer as to why they did that.

 

[herbicide]

Here's my hangup, and I don't know if it's the author's fault, or the DMR. If the bringing up of King's past tweets wasn't intended to hurt him, then why were they included in the profile at all? What purpose did it serve to publish them if it wasn't to hurt him? I get that running a background check is standard practice. But publishing those tweets wasn't just following procedure. The author thought it was newsworthy and the editor let it be published. I've never heard a satisfactory answer as to why they did that.

Even with the Register's own explanation of the timeline, had they worded the article just slightly different they would have escaped all this ire.

Carson King gave them an 'out' to not be the ones to break the news, because he beat them to the punch. But for some reason, they wanted to take credit for it.

 

[MeowingCows]

Here's my hangup, and I don't know if it's the author's fault, or the DMR. If the bringing up of King's past tweets wasn't intended to hurt him, then why were they included in the profile at all? What purpose did it serve to publish them if it wasn't to hurt him? I get that running a background check is standard practice. But publishing those tweets wasn't just following procedure. The author thought it was newsworthy and the editor let it be published. I've never heard a satisfactory answer as to why they did that.

Calvin seems to be indicating here that the dealings of the tweets were not orchestrated by himself, but that's assuming his story didn't change to look better. He's placing all of the discovery, probing and publishing blame on the editorial staff, and that he was just following instructions and didn't personally agree with it.

I guess it's up to you to decide if you think that's an honest statement or not.

 

[Halincandenza]

Here's my hangup, and I don't know if it's the author's fault, or the DMR. If the bringing up of King's past tweets wasn't intended to hurt him, then why were they included in the profile at all? What purpose did it serve to publish them if it wasn't to hurt him? I get that running a background check is standard practice. But publishing those tweets wasn't just following procedure. The author thought it was newsworthy and the editor let it be published. I've never heard a satisfactory answer as to why they did that.

I think it makes him more likeable, honestly, because it helps me relate to him. I said some things when I was younger out of ignorance and stupidity that I would never say now but I learned they were wrong the same as this kid. By him saying I shouldn't have said that and that is not me it shows how people can grow and learn. Now, they didn't have to include them, that's true but it is a total editorial decision on whether they think it adds anything to the story.

 

[jcisuclones]

He has a bright future at Breitbart

Dudes a raging liberal. Vox would be more appropriate if buzzfeed doesn’t take him back.

 

[jmb]

Its a good article honestly. The kid was doing his job and at the direction of his editors, and he was vilified for doing so. The higher-ups at the Register deserves the blame on what happened, not one of its (former) entry-level employees.

He was sniveling a bit at the end.

 

[alarson]

Good piece by this guy.


This guy got railroaded for doing his job and by a bunch of people who freaked out without ever reading the original article in the first place. Many of whom had an axe to grind because they've hated the register for some time because it doesn't fit their political worldview so this was a chance to pop off.

The freakout over this was far, far worse than anything Calvin ever did.