Direct Messages on Twitter Remain Dangerous, ESPN New York Edition
By Jason McIntyre
Which brings us to the latest Jets’ kerfuffle, which amazingly doesn’t involve Tebow, a Mark Sanchez headband, or even rookie Geno Smith. Over the weekend, ESPN New York’s Rich Cimini tweeted this:
It was quickly deleted. But Jets fans pounced all over it, passed it around, and wondered who Cimini was talking about. (He quickly apologized. Was this worse than his 2012 draft tweet of ‘druggie‘ Kenrick Ellis?) It didn’t take the message board sleuths long – they speculated the writer of the “shit” practice report was his colleague, ESPN New York’s Jane McManus.
(Aside: Last month, Mike Freeman had some thoughts on Jets beat writers being miserable.)
Will Cimini be benched for this? It’s obviously not Kornheiser-on-Storm, but who knows how ESPN will react.
Direct messages on twitter are dangerous. Whether it’s posting a phone number or ripping someone, we all make that mistake. Ask Tony Grossi, the Cleveland beat writer who “left the paper” shortly after trashing Browns ownership on twitter (he thought he was sending DMs).
We’ve all been there. If you haven’t, you eventually will. So a reminder: email is better. Text is better. Direct messages often end in disaster.