Social media is the best and worst thing that has happened to the news cycle in years. It is great because it is a fantastic way to get ahead of stories as they break and to disseminate information, but it is terrible because people take the relative anonymity that comes with social media as a reason to say some vile and terrible things.
An intern through ESPN's Campus Connections program proved just that with a comment she sent out Wednesday in relation to the shooter on Florida State's campus and quarterback Jameis Winston.
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| @CJ11andFOX |
The tweet has since been deleted along with the account, but once something goes online it is never truly gone:
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| via Twitter |
Rather than back off after the hate started to flow against her she egged it on:
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| via Twitter |
Technically, she is right, She is entitled to think anything she wants to think. If she wishes someone would get shot she can do that. Should she? Absolutely not. For most Winston haters common decency would have told them to keep that opinion to themselves.
She has since gone with the obvious defense--she was hacked. It is entirely possible that she is telling the truth of course. It happens all the time (right Cam Newton?). Could she have done it? Absolutely. People say incredibly mean and hateful things on Twitter all the time. So unless the hacker comes forward we will never know if it was really her or not.
Therein lies the big problem with social media. Rather than focus on the stories that should be focused on we end up focusing on this crap. So in the end we have to take the good with the bad--timely reporting vs. jackasses and hackers.
[
WashingtonPost]
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