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

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weR138

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Feb 20, 2008
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He's been hammering this "I'm a victim" **** the entire time. He threw the tweets in as a little blurb at the end, and not as part of some redemption arc, like he claims.

If this is true it really does damage Calvin's credibility for me. Because this is central to Calvin's use of the Tweets according to him. He does couch their use in this way.

If it's the Registers policy to publish bad Tweets as background then do it, say so and don't apologize. I get the sense that between a gotcha click bait comment and a look at Carson's positive personal growth comment it was intended as the former.
 

somecyguy

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Jun 19, 2006
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If we are this far along and he can't see why digging up old tweets from a stupid teenager, then he is hopeless. We are past the point in society where you can just claim, "I was just following my employer instructions". That is no longer a get out of jail free card.
 

GTO

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Mar 25, 2014
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The reporter got fired for his own offensive tweets he made just recently. His "apology" was weak and then he went on to blame a bunch of other people about it shortly after. To me, he still hasn't accepted responsibility for his own tweets and is blaming everyone else for his firing.
The reporter's own tweets being found were like Christmas morning for the DMR. It gave them the perfect opportunity to fire him, thereby attempting to distance themselves from the story. They even claimed the moral high ground of holding their reporters to their high standards. Ridiculous. They still never apologized for publishing the tweets. They just deflected attention to the reporter because it was the convenient distraction at the time.
 

Al_4_State

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If this is true it really does damage Calvin's credibility for me. Because this is central to Calvin's use of the Tweets according to him. He does couch their use in this way.

If it's the Registers policy to publish bad Tweets as background then do it, say so and don't apologize. I get the sense that between a gotcha click bait comment and a look at Carson's positive personal growth comment it was intended as the former.

I read Calvin's original article. It is not about Carson King's growth. It's about the Gameday deal, and everything after.

He tosses the mention of the tweets in at the very end, and there's no context, no quotes from King about how he regretted them, and no mention of the several anti-racism tweets that King made much later in life, and closer to the moment being profiled.

He's back pedaling pretty hard, and that's a big part of why I have a hard time sympathizing with Calvin. It was pretty clearly "gotcha" journalism. And the tweets were leaked to AB. He knew what he was doing, and so did the Register.
 

FinalFourCy

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Mar 5, 2017
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I read Calvin's original article. It is not about Carson King's growth. It's about the Gameday deal, and everything after.

He tosses the mention of the tweets in at the very end, and there's no context, no quotes from King about how he regretted them, and no mention of the several anti-racism tweets that King made much later in life, and closer to the moment being profiled.

He's back pedaling pretty hard, and that's a big part of why I have a hard time sympathizing with Calvin. It was pretty clearly "gotcha" journalism. And the tweets were leaked to AB. He knew what he was doing, and so did the Register.
Agree.

He’s not a victim, although he is the fall guy. The entry-level employee often is. Calvin and the DMR were trying to profit off outrage culture, and executed it so badly that it cost Calvin his job. A job he probably shouldn’t have had if we’re in a world in which offensive tweets years ago are noteworthy.
 
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Clonefan32

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Nov 19, 2008
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Two thoughts:

A) I don't believe for a second that he didn't have the discretion as the person putting his name behind the article to leave Carson's tweets out.

B) It's a pretty simple case of not throwing stones if you live in a glass house. You brought Carson's past tweets to light and he had to suffer the consequences--so too should you for your past tweets. The whole article drips of "woe is me" for "doing what the editors told him", but the fact of the matter is he was fired for extremely insensitive tweets.
 

Halincandenza

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Oct 24, 2018
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Two thoughts:

A) I don't believe for a second that he didn't have the discretion as the person putting his name behind the article to leave Carson's tweets out.

B) It's a pretty simple case of not throwing stones if you live in a glass house. You brought Carson's past tweets to light and he had to suffer the consequences--so too should you for your past tweets. The whole article drips of "woe is me" for "doing what the editors told him", but the fact of the matter is he was fired for extremely insensitive tweets.

B) How did Carson King suffer the consequences? lol
 

trevn

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From the article:

"As I told King, I don’t think it is fair to use someone’s old tweets to make blanket assaults on their character."

So then why do a background search, talk to Carson King about the offensive tweets, get both context and an apology from Carson, only to include it in the story anyway? The part about Carson's offensive tweets came out of nowhere and didn't fit in the piece.
 

MeowingCows

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Jun 1, 2015
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Two thoughts:

A) I don't believe for a second that he didn't have the discretion as the person putting his name behind the article to leave Carson's tweets out.

B) It's a pretty simple case of not throwing stones if you live in a glass house. You brought Carson's past tweets to light and he had to suffer the consequences--so too should you for your past tweets. The whole article drips of "woe is me" for "doing what the editors told him", but the fact of the matter is he was fired for extremely insensitive tweets.
There's is definitely some teeth to point B. Like, if no questionable posts were found about Calvin himself, he could've had some plausible deniability to say "well, the Register made me do it!", but that all disappeared at the point where he was outed effectively as a hypocrite.
 
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ArgentCy

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B) How did Carson King suffer the consequences? lol

The consequences of what, raising $3 million dollars for children? Yeah, throw away the key. :eek:

This is what the DMR and writer screwed up, and apparently still don't get.
 

Clonefan32

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Nov 19, 2008
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B) How did Carson King suffer the consequences? lol

You don't think there were consequences associated with him very publicly having his name associated with racist tweets?

Here in Iowa we were invested enough to know the whole story. To many others, they probably only saw the headlines about the Gameday sign kid being racist.

Plus the public embarrassment of losing Busch's support.
 

CYdTracked

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Mar 23, 2006
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B) How did Carson King suffer the consequences? lol

Judging by all your dislikes and disagrees to every post that is about Calvin or the DMR you either work for the DMR or you are Aaron Calvin. Either that or you just have some kind or tie to the DMR you just can't get past seeing their mistakes. Care to reveal anything to prove me wrong?
 

Halincandenza

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Oct 24, 2018
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You don't think there were consequences associated with him very publicly having his name associated with racist tweets?

Here in Iowa we were invested enough to know the whole story. To many others, they probably only saw the headlines about the Gameday sign kid being racist.

Plus the public embarrassment of losing Busch's support.

I haven't seen anything negative happen to him. Maybe it has but seems like he has made out pretty well.
 
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Halincandenza

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Judging by all your dislikes and disagrees to every post that is about Calvin or the DMR you either work for the DMR or you are Aaron Calvin. Either that or you just have some kind or tie to the DMR you just can't get past seeing their mistakes. Care to reveal anything to prove me wrong?

Why would I need to prove you wrong?? Weirdo.
 
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ISUTex

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I don't recall anybody really calling for the guy's job. Didn't they just want the Register to apologize and admit they made a mistake? They didn't need to fire the reporter. All that did was validate why everybody was pissed off at the register in the first place.
 
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SpokaneCY

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Apr 11, 2006
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Agree.

He’s not a victim, although he is the fall guy. The entry-level employee often is. Calvin and the DMR were trying to profit off outrage culture, and executed it so badly that it cost Calvin his job. A job he probably shouldn’t have had if we’re in a world in which offensive tweets for years ago are noteworthy.

I thought it was enlightening when he said most of the "reporters" are 20-somethings. One thing I THINK I understand about SOME 20-somethings it's they have zero world view beyond their artificial on-line world.

This isn't about media bias, it's about having "news" presented to you filtered through a person that has no perspective.

If Carson was doing a charity event for under privileged minority youth, the texts may be valid. But there is NO way they had any bearing on his good work and should never have factored into this story.
 
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cat named georges

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Apr 16, 2017
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We need to have a Carson King day every year during the Cy-Hawk game where people go back through old social media posts and delete things they no longer agree with or better yet make their posts private.