Steve Czaban of ESPN Radio Washington & Yahoo! Sports Radio once famously remarked that Twitter was a loaded gun. After a controversial tweet in late 2012, Czaban had to deal with a firestorm of criticism. He ultimately went into a self-imposed Twitter exile that lasted most of 2013. The point: one wrong Tweet, and you could be in the trained crosshairs of certain groups. Several celebs have been taken down because of Tweets. Even the most innocuous of Tweets can find you in a world of trouble (just ask Bill Cosby and others).
Two tweets in the past week hammered that point personally home to me. One was perhaps my most controversial Tweet to date. The other came from CBS Radio & TV Talk Show Host Jim Rome, whose Twitter’s account I follow.
First, my tweet. Last Saturday Morning, the funeral for NYPD Officer Ramos took place. Ofc. Ramos was 1 of 2 NYPD Officers assassinated apparently in retaliation for the deaths of 2 unarmed suspects at the hands of police in NYC and Ferguson, MO. And yes, my controversial tweet concerned the funeral.
Now I know what you are thinking… I went after NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and his apparent lack of concern for NYPD Officers, right? Wrong. OK, maybe I went after the protestor who chanted for dead cops? Nope. OK, maybe I tweeted a scathing rebuke of the NYPD Officers who turned their backs on the Mayor’s eulogy, right? Guess again.
Here was my “controversial tweet”, which I later deleted:
"Interesting note about today's funeral for NYPD Ofc. Ramos... No Westboro Baptist Church members in sight to protest".
That’s it?!? On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 was minimal controversy and 10 was asking for trouble, I felt that tweet was a 2 at worst. No hastag, No @ address deliberately trying to egg on the church. Nothing. I felt that I had tweeted much worse snark about Ravens games this season. No big deal, right? That was. until the alleged real Westboro Baptist Church, who clearly had their rabbit ears up, came back at me. I captured some images of the responses. First from the alleged Church themselves, they tweeted a picture trying to indicate they were there (which obviously, they weren’t). If they were in NYC, they were clearly nowhere near the funeral; otherwise, they would have never made it out the Queens borough alive. Then they tried to tell me I was going to hell. Then the coup de grace. They lumped me in with VP Joe Biden, Al Sharpton, and the NYPD, praying for me to stop marrying gays. I kid you not!
I found the attention these “Christians” (and I use that term VERY loosely) directed at me to be funny. I even joked about it on FB. The fact the WBC Cult would be scared of lil’ ol’ me shows how far they have fallen. Once upon a time, we used to get upset when they would protest funerals, like Matthew Shepard’s, soldiers who died in combat, celebrities, and even little victims of the Newtown, MA shooting. Now, they have been reduced to coming after nobodies. They excommunicated their founder before he died because he apparently softened his anti-gay stance in a moment of compassion. They are losing family members, who are coming to the reality that their hell, fire, and brimstone preaching about gays all the time is counterproductive.
Still, I made a mistake. I gave them something they are in desperate need. Attention. And a reason to hate. They probably preached a sermon about me last Sunday, thinking I am some major agent of the devil. Not my intention, but I gave them something to chew on. So I have decided to not do that again. If they need me and others to even comment about them in order to keep surviving on hate, it is time to stop giving them attention. If we can ignore them, they will eventually disappear—whether peacefully (as in they will stop believing their hatred) or… well, think Jonestown, Guyana and Jim Jones.
Jim Rome, stirred up a controversy of a different kind during halftime of yesterday’s Rose Bowl in an apparent reference to Florida State’s Marching Band. His tweet (also now deleted) went like this:
“Is there anyone not in a marching band who thinks those dorks running around with those instruments are cool?”
This was a reset of a take he unloaded over 5 years ago concerning “Marching Band Guy”. Over the years, Rome has taken on various “Guys” who think they are athletes, but are really not in his mind… Guys like “Softball Guy”, “Soccer Guy”, “Bowling Guy”, “Fitness Guy”, “Pickup Basketball Guy”, “Fantasy Football Guy”, etc. “Marching Band Guy” was one of his last Guys he ripped on. And I know this was over 5 years ago, because that take is older than Joshua.
Anyways, as someone who has listened to “Van Smack” over the years, who used to be “Marching Band Guy”, and who still considers himself a “Bowling Guy”, I have had no issues Rome’s takes on “Marching Band Guy” or “Bowling Guy”. He played to his radio audience. No big deal. And I saw his tweet about the Marching Band last night and thought, “He’s just looking to ruffle some listeners’ feathers up a little.” I had heard worse when I was a South Gwinnett Band of Stars Member and verbal crap was hurled in my direction coming from the Drumline and Low Brass sections during Band Camps at the GA 4-H Camp.
Well, apparently, it stirred up a hornet’s nest.
Maybe it was the fact that Marching Bands have been dealing with negative press in recent years. Like Florida A&M’s Marching Band, whose Famed group was suspended for a year after the death of a Drum Major exposed a major hazing culture that existed into this decade. Like Ohio State’s Band, whose decades of hypersexualized culture was exposed last year, leading to the firing of their Band Director. Like the High School Director in Alabama who turned after school tutoring of female students into his own “Fifty Shades of Grey” fantasies that the young ladies were all too eager to satisfy. Like the fact that when most people think Marching Band Movies, they think of “American Pie” and what you can do with a flute at Band Camp instead of “Drumline”.
So the Band folks snapped last night and went after the “Pimp in the Box” in such a huge way that Rome was forced to make a rare apology. And by forced, I mean that CBS probably told him they were feeling the heat and that he was potentially costing them money. Rome could get away with it years ago when he had his own syndicated radio network and didn’t have to answer to a major company. He no longer has that ability now that he’s ultimately answering to Jim McKay’s son.
Again, I had no problem with Rome’s controversial post, because I used to be a Scrawny Marching Band Dork who wasn’t cool. But some Marching Band people were offended. They thought Rome was being a bully, even though some of them acted like Marching Band Bullies in High School Band. That’s what I find ironic. And look, just because you wake up early for 5:00 am Band Practice doesn’t mean you are more athletic than an athlete. I know this firsthand. After my three years of Marching Band, I tried out for the Basketball team at South Gwinnett my Senior Year-and didn’t make the cut. The Basketball conditioning kicked my butt in more ways than anything Mitch Lavender had ever put me through during a Band Camp (a Back-to-Front Sprint--known by a more insensitive name--was considered a Cool-Down day? Seriously, Coach Mudd?)
Anyways, the Band folks can call off the hounds now… Further agitation would be just piling on. Marching Band Guy (and probably the rest of the “Guys”) has now joined “The Rat Family” in something Rome will never bring up on air or Twitter ever again.
As I said in the beginning, Twitter (even more so than Facebook) is a loaded gun. Choose to use it wisely. From now on, I’ll try to focus on Sports and Tech—maybe Tweet an Election Day take whenever that happens. I’d like to think those things are innocuous… But I (and Jim Rome) must realize some people will always have their rabbit ears up…
So… “What’s Popping Twitter??”
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