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

The consensus on the IndyCar fan forums that I've seen seemed to be that Frei was an idiot, but that they were a little uncomfortable with Sato flying the Japanese flag, and should have at least flown both the U.S. and Japanese flags, considering the holiday.

 

The war ended 72 years ago and this guy wasn't in it, his dad was. What if he had been talking about his dad being a gulf war vet and it bothering him that an Iraqi won the Indy 500 on Memorial Day? No timeline makes that tweet fly. He's condemning a whole nationality for the sins of their leaders. That's plain old ignorance

 

I agree. I just bet he thought he could wrap it in Memorial Day and get away with it.

 

Newspapers do want it all ways however. Everything gets edited except social media posts. Why? Why is a reporter hung out to dry like this? Shouldn't somebody be editing ALL tweets of employees? If not, get rid of all copy editing completely. If the reporter messes up, he/she can be fired like this guy. And the company wanted him fired to get rid of his salary. So it's win/win.

 

Hung out to dry?

Terry Frei is in his 60s. He's been in the newspaper business for 40 years. Again... he can't type 140 characters without being a racist asshole? That's the NEWSPAPER'S fault?

I tweet for work. I have about 4,000 followers. I would be beyond insulted if my workplace suddenly decided I needed an editor to go over my tweets.

If you need an editor for tweets, you are too stupid to work in this business.

 

So, question:

Was the post "racist"?

I keep seeing that stated as fact. I feel like it was nationalist, certainly, but not necessarily racist.

 

Racists all.

 

Yeah, I think more ignorant/stupid than racist. Certainly thoughtless.

 

I would also add that many media outlets don't just want you to be active on social media, they want you to be at least somewhat provocative so you develop a following. But it has to be the right kind of edgy. God forbid you slip up and have an unpopular opinion. (To be clear, I'm not talking about Frei's dumb tweet, just in general)

 

One thing most will agree on, it was stupid and ignorant.

 

I think it's a debatable point... but yeah, I think it was racist.

I can't imagine him posting that about a German driver.

 

Why not?