Aaron Calvin Speaks

mcblogerson

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I just keep reading a story about the Des Moines Register hating kids with cancer. The rest of the story is fluff.
 

NWICY

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I don't quite understand everyone saying, "Oh, he was only 16 when he said those ****** things on Twitter." Yes, but it's still not okay to say ****** stuff when you are 16. Why can't everyone just look at Carson's own tweets, where he basically said, "Yo, I was wrong to post that crap, I'm ashamed of it and glad that the Register showed it to me, and I'm working on being a better person." Why can't everyone just say, "Wow, look at how far that kid has come?" Isn't that the better point than sweeping it under the rug? It's crappy that it came out, that the Register decided to try and "scoop" a feel-good story of someone helping. But since it is out there, can't we try and make it something better for the current 16-year-olds out there to see?

I might be mistaken but isn't that what Carson did? I think Calvin probably hung out with Randy Pete to much, tried to get emulate Randy didn't have enough seniority and got hung out to dry. (Sort of kidding with the 2nd sentence but Randy likes to throw stuff at walls and sees what sticks except he been around enough the Register won't can him.)

Edit: got lost in the statement Angie, we both agree that's what Carson did Sorry for the mix up @Angie.
 
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FinalFourCy

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Cancel culture is huge on the right too. Kaepernick? Starbucks?

It’s a problem across our entire society, and a huge reason that people of ALL political stripes support Carson King.

I think this d bag reporter is hoping to gain points with the far left, but they’re going to eat him up for his recent racist/homophobic tweets and comparing his situation to being a minority.

This is kid (Aaron Calvin) is a first rate twat.
I agree, which is why I said generally. Also, the DMR was trying to gain points. Calvin isn’t the only one.

That’s the thing, call-out culture is more of a game of hysteria that’s a symptom of society learning how to deal with new ways of human group interaction, than it is about true ideological motivations. The left leaning comment was more a correlation to younger demographics being more common in the mediums that foster the network effect, technology and campuses. Clearly it’s not contained to that group.
 
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NWICY

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The editor is really where any ire should be directed, as opposed to the writer just doing his job.

Heck Al if you got a spot open where you work go ahead and hire Calvin and give him a shot at redemption. Reach out and help the young man.
 
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Tailg8er

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They're getting death threats and hiring extra security for their offices. This is Iowa. This isn't what we are. Or at least, it didn't used to be.

There was 1 anonymous call about 'burning the building down'. The building has had 3 (old, slightly disabled) security guards on staff for 10 hours x 2 & 1/2 days (as opposed to the 1 they have all the time), and slightly increased police presence outside.

Any/all death threats are bad & uncalled for, obviously - but let's not act like the DMR has been inundated with threats. They're rightfully doing what they need to do to cover their asses in case any sort of attack was actually carried out - that's it.

The security guards (not by any building doors, mind you) are only requiring employees to show their FOB (an unmarked dongle that businesses use to open doors after hours) to access the elevator. Any person from any company not in the building could show them something that looks like one & be on their way. It is security theatre, again, to cover liability in the rare case something were to happen.

As an employee on a different floor in the same building, I haven't been at all worried. The security employees' level of thoroughness/concern makes it clear what they're doing is for show.
 

mcmcmcly

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I don't get the whole thing about him being doxed. His byline appeared on the previous King articles, as well as the profile. It wasn't a secret who wrote the thing.

Here with a quick PSA on Doxing. It isn't just calling a person out for questionable conduct or even digging up objectionable social media posts.

Doxing is a specific tactic that involves making personally identifiable information like a person's email accounts, phone numbers, and home / work address readily available to provoke intimidation and harassment of the target. It is employed by crazy people of all persuasions.

On an editorial note... if you are concerned about cancel culture you should be on the side of Mr. Calvin.

Yes, his tweets are objectionable but they have also only been presented out of context and he was given no chance to explain or apologize for his actions before being summarily fired. (Also can we just say that retweeting Kanye lyrics is problematic but not problematic ... altho i would like an explanation for the "marry a horse" bit)

To contrast, Mr. King got to hold a press conference apologizing for his actions and effectively diffused his past mistakes and eventually raised even more money for his cause due to the controversy.

So if you are keeping score. One guy lost his job without severance despite gross negligence from his direct superiors, and another guy raised millions for a charity but didn't get his face on a beer can and won't get free beer for life.
 

ISUCY23

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Wow this guy doesn’t get it. He’s taking no responsibility. And comparing himself with women and POC? Yikes. He really wants to be a martyr.

I don’t know what the “right wing” gains politically from taking down a no name reporter. I don’t know how he can twist this in his head and think this is a politically motivated attack.
 

ISUCY23

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Why didn’t Calvin clean up his twitter account before the article was published? Didn’t he anticipate someone checking his history? Or did he think what he had tweeted was okay?

He thought it was ok. He basically says in the buzzfeed article that it was taken out of context and misunderstood.
 

mj4cy

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Hmmmmm. I also quoted the "n" word in my dissertation, because that's what we do.


Sometimes I just have random spells of yelling the n word, screaming homophobic slurs, and bouts of claiming allegiance to the Nazi party....but I'm always taken out of context when I do that. It's not fair...
 
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CyCloned

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Wow this guy doesn’t get it. He’s taking no responsibility. And comparing himself with women and POC? Yikes. He really wants to be a martyr.

I don’t know what the “right wing” gains politically from taking down a no name reporter. I don’t know how he can twist this in his head and think this is a politically motivated attack.

Yeah,, I agree, sorry this is not a right wing, left wing thing. Pretty much pissed everyone in the state off by digging in to something he didn't need to. I feel about as bad for him as I do the Iowa band. Sometimes when you do stupid things it comes back to bite you.
 

dosry5

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I don’t get all the talk of the dmr throwing this dooosh under the bus......he was fired because of his own tweets, not what he did to King. Granted, what he did to King shed light on his tweets....but they were HIS tweets. Scapegoat or under the bus means he is taking the blame for someone else. He put those tweets out knowing his employers policies.
 

agcy68

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Except its not like the article made those tweets a centerpiece. It merely mentioned the tweets. Ironically it was people like you who got all outraged about it that made it a bigger deal than it had to be. Otherwise it would have been a one-paragraph footnote -with mitigating information showing that isnt who he is today- in an otherwise extremely positive profile.

The reporter never 'tried to ruin his life' as many morons have claimed, or tried to get him fired or anything like that, so its not like there's some hypocrisy there. Nor was there much damage in the end anyway, other Busch ending its relationship that was likely to be short-lived anyway (and they still maintained their donation). From the tweets i saw, Calvin's tweets were much like the ones that Carson's claimed to be (though we've never actually seen the exact ones from Carson because they were deleted)- mostly just quotes of other people from several years ago.

Then you need to look deeper, if you can find them.

First, Calvin's were worse than what was implied for Carson. See here for a synopsis: https://heavy.com/news/2019/09/aaron-calvin/

Second, there were more of them over a much longer period of time and as recent as 2016 (as far as I can tell).

Third, this isn't a 'right wing' thing. I have seem many liberal people that have called this wrong or called for his firing including WaPo and NYT. Invoking 'the conservatives are out to get me' and claiming to be the victim in this just angers people more and is not accurate (which you would think a journalist would aspire to be).

Fourth, he wasn't fired for the article, he was fired because his twitter feed was not in line with DMR expectations.

Honestly, I don't think he would have been fired or that the blowback would have been nearly as bad if it weren't for his own checkered twitter feed. And instead of claiming a conspiracy against him, he needs to own that.
 

agcy68

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Ah yes, "call out culture", the buzzword so popular in the right wing that, like "pc culture" before it, basically boils down to "HOW DARE YOU CRITICIZE ME FOR SAYING SOMETHING TERRIBLE"

Thank you for proving my point.

Do you get the hypocrosy that Calvin exudes at all? He used 2 tweets from 8 years ago as a compass on Carson and totally ignored more recent posts that supports ending racism. Granted, it was the editors call to include them, but I suspect he was fully in the conversation.

All the while, Calvin's own twitter feed was littered with racist, anti-cop, hate the USA tweets. How is it possibly ok for Calvin to tweet was he tweets, but use Carson's own tweets against him???
 

Cycsk

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Facts are facts.

The reporter found some offensive tweets by the subject of an article and reported it. That's what journalists do. They shouldn't decide what to report according to its impact on the subject (exceptions for minors, victims of sexual abuse, and families of victims who haven't been notified).

The Register found some offensive tweets by an employee and fired him. That's what companies do. They must make decisions about whether an employee's background is more costly than beneficial.

In both cases, the facts would be exposed sooner or later.

Carson King wisely got ahead of the story about him, became truly transparent, confessed his mistakes, and explained evidence that he has matured. He is likely to land on his feet as a local hero.

Aaron Calvin seems to be focused on defending himself. If he doesn't show himself to be a loose cannon that even the most liberal paper doesn't want around, and if he actually has talent as a journalist (we know he can do good research!), he can still be a free-lancer as that is what most newspaper writers are anyway these days. And then he can spend the rest of his life on the lecture circuit as the poster boy of being canned for just doing your job. His tweets would have caught up with him eventually, even if this incident had never happened.
 

agcy68

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Yes. Absolutely right wing if you followed any of the outrage that developed on this. A lot of people who were angry about past incidents when adults got called out for their own racist or otherwise ****** behavior suddenly decided to take up this as their cause when the real problem with this one was that it got into things that he posted as a minor.

This guy followed the process he was supposed to from his employer, and got thrown under the bus.

Totally disagree. I have heard a ton of liberal people rebuke Calvin for this. Not a Right wing thing at all.
 

Cloneon

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I think that kind of research is pretty important in a lot of situations. This clearly wasn’t one of those situations though, he wasn’t aspiring to some leadership position or anything like that.
Slightly disagree. The research is important. The 'choice' of the integration not so good. They could have even included it, but framed it in a manner beneficial to everyone. For example ... "
Then you need to look deeper, if you can find them.

First, Calvin's were worse than what was implied for Carson. See here for a synopsis: https://heavy.com/news/2019/09/aaron-calvin/

Second, there were more of them over a much longer period of time and as recent as 2016 (as far as I can tell).

Third, this isn't a 'right wing' thing. I have seem many liberal people that have called this wrong or called for his firing including WaPo and NYT. Invoking 'the conservatives are out to get me' and claiming to be the victim in this just angers people more and is not accurate (which you would think a journalist would aspire to be).

Fourth, he wasn't fired for the article, he was fired because his twitter feed was not in line with DMR expectations.

Honestly, I don't think he would have been fired or that the blowback would have been nearly as bad if it weren't for his own checkered twitter feed. And instead of claiming a conspiracy against him, he needs to own that.
agree!!... and (blowback not being nearly as bad) if it wasn't the 'policy' of the Register to do a background check OR if the Register had 'framed' the content in an ethical manner. Makes one wonder if they're, retroactively, now performing 'background' checks on everyone they employ. If we don't hear of more firings, I suppose that isn't the case. Seems hypocritical if not.
 
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