ESPN Suspends Keith Law From Twitter For Defending Evolution

[Catastrophic Lullaby]

Quote:

Heavy-tweetin' ESPN baseball writer Keith Law has been noticeably silent for the last couple of days. That's no coincidence—he's been given a Twitter timeout by ESPN, and we're told that it's for loudly and repeatedly defending Charles Darwin from transitional fossil Curt Schilling, his Bristol colleague.

Schilling, the former pitcher who rejoined ESPN as a baseball analyst in September after eight months away to deal with mouth cancer, took to Twitter on Nov. 12 to rail against evolution and in favor of creationism.


Curt Schilling Has Disproved Evolution
I'm going to cut straight to the chase: Curt Schilling has no ******** clue what he's…
Read more
Law jumped in with a series of Tweets—slightly fractious, but fact-based and generally respectful—disputing Schilling's claims, and those of other Twitter users.

Source: http://deadspin.com/espn-suspends-keith-law-from-twitter-for-defending-evol-1661836868

Does anyone have any opinions on this matter? How does everyone feel that your job could be compromised for going public about not believing in creationism or having a religion? Of course private employers can do a lot but I would enjoy hearing opinions on this.

[Inscriven]

It's not particularly shocking, it's ESPN doing brand management and damage control.

A reality of working in the media is that you are a representative of the brand you work for. Because of that you are expected to not behave in ways that do not negatively affect the brand, and often times it's a contractual clause. It doesn't matter if it's on the clock or not because people will assosciate you with the brand no matter what.

So yeah, if you start saying things that could potentially alienate 50% or more of your potential/total audience reach, then you're going to put that fire out quick. Double true for a media conglomerate like Disney.

[The Herald of War]

Catastrophic Lullaby

Quote:

Heavy-tweetin' ESPN baseball writer Keith Law has been noticeably silent for the last couple of days. That's no coincidence—he's been given a Twitter timeout by ESPN, and we're told that it's for loudly and repeatedly defending Charles Darwin from transitional fossil Curt Schilling, his Bristol colleague.

Schilling, the former pitcher who rejoined ESPN as a baseball analyst in September after eight months away to deal with mouth cancer, took to Twitter on Nov. 12 to rail against evolution and in favor of creationism.


Curt Schilling Has Disproved Evolution
I'm going to cut straight to the chase: Curt Schilling has no ******** clue what he's…
Read more
Law jumped in with a series of Tweets—slightly fractious, but fact-based and generally respectful—disputing Schilling's claims, and those of other Twitter users.

Source: http://deadspin.com/espn-suspends-keith-law-from-twitter-for-defending-evol-1661836868

Does anyone have any opinions on this matter? How does everyone feel that your job could be compromised for going public about not believing in creationism or having a religion? Of course private employers can do a lot but I would enjoy hearing opinions on this.

If the idiot Creationist is suspended too I'd see less of a problem. As someone who's paid to be talking etc he should probably keep quiet on controversial issues.

Preferably though they'd treat this as they would someone who corrected a person spouting the idea that the Earth is flat. I see it as kind of pathetic to not take a stance on something that's settled aside from some shrieking Creationists making it a controversy.

[Dieu des hommes]

Is this seriously something that happens in the US? I thought this issue was solved in 1860.

[The Legendary Guest]

Dieu des hommes

Is this seriously something that happens in the US? I thought this issue was solved in 1860.

Yes this seriously happens in the US, we have members of all levels of government who think evolution is something their religious beliefs get to supersede, even in the school system. It's embarrassing.

[Xiam]

Dieu des hommes

Is this seriously something that happens in the US? I thought this issue was solved in 1860.

It's a big country. Lots of nooks and crannies for backward idiotic thinking to reside.

[King Shining Heaven]

Well, that seems unfair

[GSK Lives]

Dieu des hommes

Is this seriously something that happens in the US? I thought this issue was solved in 1860.

*SNORT* Buddy, you hvae no idea; there are places in the country you can't get elected if you don't attack evolution.