Ashton Kutcher Quit Twitter After Supporting Fired Joe Paterno
This is probably going to be the only post on the Penn State scandal, since it doesn’t really fit here. But Ashton Kutcher’s major booboo today requires at least the Cliffs Notes version of the reaction to Joe Paterno being fired.
* In short, Penn State assistant coach/ former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was allegedly a rampant child molester who’s been grooming and assaulting children under his ward for years; specifically, eight boys between the mid-1990s and the late-2000s. He was a violent, exploitative sexual predator and only recently have the worst of his crimes come to light.
* Sandusky, 67, worked at Penn State for more than 30 years.
* According to DeadSpin.com, “Sandusky had also run a foster home in State College, Pa., for troubled children called The Second Mile. The Second Mile, according to [a 23-page grand jury report], ‘gave [Sandusky] access to hundreds of boys, many of whom were vulnerable due to their social situations.’ After his retirement from coaching, Sandusky also still had full access to Penn State’s football facilities.”
* Coach Paterno was reportedly informed of the abuse by an eyewitness, a graduate assistant, who’d seen Sandusky and a boy showering together at Penn State’s football facility. Reads the report (WARNING: graphic): “As the graduate assistant entered the locker room doors, he was surprised to find the lights and the showers on. He then heard rhythmic, slapping sounds. He believed the sounds to be those of sexual activity. As the graduate assistant put his sneakers in his locker, he looked in the shower. He saw a naked boy… whose age he estimated to be ten years old, with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky. The graduate assistant was shocked but noticed that both [the victim] and Sandusky saw him. The graduate assistant left immediately, distraught.”
* The grad. assistant informed Paterno, who in turn informed athletic director Tim Curley, who launched a cover-up. Paterno sat idle while a cover-up took place under his nose (even knowing the severity and nature of the crimes).
* Curley testified that the crimes never happened, and were “not that serious.”
* Coach Paterno was supposed to retire quietly. Even after the cover-up leaked. But he was fired yesterday. “Fired.”
* Some seriously misguided students at Penn State (“Pedophile State University,” notes one YouTube commenter), who really need to reevaluate their priorities, overlooked the child rape and protested the firing of Paterno, even flipping a news van. (SERIOUSLY need to look at their lives, given their moronic reason for rioting).
* The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office has made public the entire 23-page grand jury report, see it HERE.
* Sandusky was arrested on Saturday.
Somehow gleaning only that Paterno was fired, Kutcher started tweeting about it. Noting that Kutcher’s an advocate for child protection, he tweeted “How dare you fire Jo Pa? Insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste.”
And BOOM! There was a massive Twitter backlash; swearing and insults flew.
Kutcher conceded to his ignorance and deleted the original message. He temporarily quit Twitter, because he’s dramatic as well as ignorant, saying “Heard Joe was fired, fully recant previous tweet! Didn’t have full story. #admitwhenYoumakemistakes…This is an insane story, I just heard paterno was fired, getting the rest of the story now… Wow … As an advocate in the fight against child sexual exploitation, I could not be more remorseful for all involved in the Penn St. case… Honestly just had half facts man my bad … I need 2b more responsible 4 my voice.”
Minutes ago, he added “As of immediately I will stop tweeting until I find a way to properly manage this feed. I feel awful about this error. Won’t happen again,” and the following blog entry.
Up until today I have posted virtually everyone of my tweets on my own, but clearly the platform has become to big to be managed by a single individual. When I started using twitter it was a communication platform that people could say what they are thinking in real time and and if their facts where wrong the community would quickly and helpfully reframe an opinion. It was a conversation, a community driven education tool, and opionion center that encouraged healthy debate. It seems that today that twitter has grown into a mass publishing platform, where ones tweets quickly become news that is broadcated around the world and misinformation becomes volitile fotter for critics.
Last night after returning home from work I walked by the television and simply saw a headline that Joe Paterno had been fired. Having no more information than that, I assumed that he had been fired due to poor performance as an aging coach. As a football fan and someone who had watched Joe’s career move from that of legend/innovator to a head coach that fullfilled his duty in the booth, I assumed that the university had let him go due to football related issues. With that assumption (how dare I assume) I posted a tweet defending his career. I then when about my evening, had some dinner, did a little work, and about an hour later turned on ESPN where I got the full story. I quickly when back on my twitter account and found a hailstorm of responses calling me an “idiot” and several other explitives that I’ve become accustom to hearing for almost anything I post. I quickly retracted and deleted my previous post, however that didn’t seem enough to satisfy peoples outrage at my misinformed post. I truely am sorry if I offended anyone and more over am going to take action to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.
A collection of over 8 million followers is not to be taken for granted. I feel responsible for delivering an informed opinion and not spreading gossip or rumors through my twitter feed. While I feel that running this feed myself gives me a closer relationship to my friends and fans I’ve come to realize that it has grown into more that a fun tool to communicate with people. While I will continue to express myself through @Aplusk I’m going to turn the management of the feed over to my team at Katalyst Media to ensure the quality of it’s content. My sincere apologies to anyone who I offended. It was a mistake that I don’t think will not happen again. – Ashton Kutcher’s Twitter, Posterous.
** UPDATE: Despite promising to stay off Twitter, Kutcher just tweeted the following photo.
