Terry Frei of the Denver Post fired for tweet about Japanese Indy 500 winner

Yeah, but actions have consequences. How many people have had no bad days, but got laid off through no fault of their own?

I wonder if Frei experiences similar uncomfortable feelings when he is in a big box store and sees items made by Sony or Samsung, or drives by a Benihana, or sees someone eating sushi, or was with a photographer on staff with a Canon camera, or he ever went to a Rockies game and saw Ichiro Suzuki or Hideo Nomo come to town. His life had to be full of uncomfortable moments - what a champ to keep from tweeting stupid things about them until the Indy 500 this year.

 

No one has ever not had a bad day.

 

To the point where you show your ass needlessly, reflect poorly on the people who sign your paychecks and then act like a immature brat by issuing a shitty non-apology? Yeah, I've never had a bad day that manifested itself like that. Pretty sure I'm not alone.

 

OK, but that's not the same as never having a bad day. Sounds like this was totally out of character, and I don't think firing was warranted for the offense on its face. However, I do agree with the idea that it was his "apology" that sealed his fate.

 

His initial tweet said "nothing personal" then his apology was personal, talking about his dad. It definitely was a fireable offense. The question is would he have been fired had he not plugged his book in the apology? This like you said may have been a good way to get rid of a veteran salary. Twitter is very interesting. Newspapers break all their news on Twitter. Yes, newspapers decided it was a great business model to break news on some other company's website. What a big LOL. See you all in the unemployment line after MANY ridiculous decisions by suits (actually consultants) including using Twitter as THE MAIN outlet to break news. It is nonsense. And before you lecture me how important Twitter is to link to your stories and all the resulting clicks, tell me again how the clicks are saving our jobs? Twitter ... one of many bad decisions by newspaper management types during what we'll call "The end of newspapers."

 

I'm one of those who would have been in favor of some kind of middle ground and more nuanced disciplinary measures.

His first tweet didn't read as racist -- not everything negative, or that could be perceived as negative, that is thought, said or written by somebody about someone of another ethnicity is necessarily racist. It read like a bit of an off-hand comment regarding the irony of what was actually a coincidental occurrence (someone of Japanese descent winning the Indy 500 on Memorial Day weekend), and it seemed like an observation that Frei made just because he had a forum to do so.

Now, it turned out, based on later tweets and the more personal substance of his later apology, that Frei had some pretty legitimate reasons that that particular observation was notable to him, or that it would have occurred to him at all. It doesn't matter that WWII was a long time ago -- not to those directly influenced by it, or close to someone directly influenced by it. It was that big a deal.

The problem is more with the nature of Twitter. It doesn't readily lend itself to nuance, explanation or expounding on the things people often spout off about. It's made for short bursts. And short bursts of bad seem to go over much more powerfully than short bursts of good. Couple that with the fact that the reach of Twitter is nearly unlimited, and you have trouble and embarrassment just waiting to happen.

It wasn't that someone of Japanese descent won the Indy 500, or made a TV, or whatever. It was that this occurred on Memorial Day weekend. Frei's observation doesn't get tweeted at all if it's not this weekend.

 

So you're saying he's in line for Spicey's job? [/crossthread]

 

That includes Jesus.

 

Sorry, no. The "nuance" is bullshit. A sportswriter tweeting out his disappointment that a Japanese driver won the biggest race in the US is inexcusably stupid. I don't care how many bombing runs his daddy made in WW2.

 

The 500 is always "this weekend"!

Imagine if, say, Michael Schumaker had run at Indy and won? Would this tweet have been made?

 

I would have said the Tweet was written in 1942 and somehow popped back up in the feed.

Twitter can be the best friend of a journalist and make you really matketable.

But if you favor kamikaze tweets, you won't last long.