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Ashton Kutcher Outsources His Twitter Account, After Penn State Tweet #Fail
By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 10, 2011
Modified Nov 10, 2011
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By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 10, 2011
Modified Nov 10, 2011
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Last night, not only were there riots at Penn State over the firing of legendary coach Joe Paterno, Twitter users took the time to shame celebrity Twitter fiend Ashton Kutcher. Last night, the "Two and a Half Men" star and college football fan Tweeted, "How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste"—which sent the Twitterverse into a frenzy.
For instance, musician Brad Walsh retweeted with, "You're a #fucking #shithead. RT @aplusk: How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste."
Kutcher later Tweeted, "This is an insane story, I just heard paterno was fired, getting the rest of the story now... Wow." The rest of the story being that various Penn State administrators and employees—like Paterno— knew that a former defensive coordinator had allegedly raped and sexually abused young boys in Penn State facilities.
Now, after deleting various Tweets from the night (but many are captured on his Facebook page), Kutcher is handing over his Twitter account to his management team. Guess we won't be seeing shots like this anymore!
After the initial Tweet and some of 8 million-plus followers told him what happened, Kutcher Tweeted, "Heard Joe was fired, fully recant previous tweet! Didn't have full story. #admitwhenYoumakemistakes" and "Had no idea, thought it was a football thing" When one person replied to him "@aplusk where have you been the last three days!?", he answered, "working." Another person wrote, "@aplusk you're an idiot," Kutcher agreed.
Kutcher and wife Demi Moore run a charity that addresses child slavery and sex trafficking, and he Tweeted after the initial furor, "As an advocate in the fight against child sexual exploitation, I could not be more remorseful for all involved in the Penn St. case," and then, "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." Now, he's released a statement:
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.
On September 11, Kutcher Tweeted it was "the greatest day of the year," apparently referring to the start of the football season, and not the 10th anniversary of the biggest attack on American soil ever.
Tagged
ashton kutcher
celebrity
jerry sandusky
joe paterno
penn state
stupid
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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