Anyone in the media who says “I ignore social media” is either lying or dumb. It’s important to keep an eye on whether any of the things we say or write are interpreted correctly — and whether they’re being twisted and warped in the name of engagement.
Sometimes, the only thing to do is untwist and unwarp for the benefit of those who are either too stupid to apply common sense or smart enough to distort reality for profit. (I’m not sure which is worse.)
Two weeks ago, after USA Today fired Crissy Froyd for comments she made on Twitter when Dianna Russini resigned from The Athletic, I addressed the manner in which the aggregators had reacted to my effort to steer Chris Simms on PFT Live as he was potentially deviating from the known and reported facts about the controversy involving Russini and Patriots coach Mike Vrabel. They believed (or pretended to believe) that I’d reached through the camera and applied a concrete muzzle to Simms, just as he was about to make some dramatic revelation that would have provided a definitive solution to the entire situation (along with a clip they could steal and post).
The truth was far less interesting. I practiced law for 19 years. I know where the line is. I was trying to keep my co-host and friend away from it, by getting him to stick to what was known and/or properly vetted and reported.
I didn’t silence him. He could have then said whatever he wanted to say. (And the first thing he said to me after I told him to “stay on target” was to “shut the hell up.”)
He also could have said whatever he wanted to say on his own Twitter page. On his Instagram account. On his own podcast. He was free to say whatever he wanted, wherever he wanted.
At that specific moment, my goal was to protect my co-host and friend from accidentally saying something that isn’t known and/or hasn’t been properly vetted and reported. Such comments can have consequences, potentially in the form of a civil lawsuit for defamation.
Fast forward to Monday. Chris announced on PFT Live that he won’t be on Football Night in America this season. It’s part of the broader overhaul of the show. It started with Tony Dungy’s announcement that he won’t be back, and it continued with NBC’s announcement that Mike Tomlin has joined the show — and that the show will go on the road every week this season.
Somehow, the two threads have been tied together into the asinine (to put it mildly) notion that Chris was “fired by NBC” because I told him to “stay on target” when we were discussing the Vrabel-Russini situation in the very early days of a story that has lingered for 23 days and counting. (It didn’t help that one specific person whose 15 minutes of notoriety have expired may be trying to leverage a little extra time by injecting herself into the story.)
It’s stupid. It’s illogical. It’s cuckoo for mutherf—king Cocoa Puffs. And while it may be good for aggregator engagement, it’s very bad for brain cells — and it reveals the absence of them in those who actually believe there’s a link between the two things.
Also (and since this one has caught some traction, too), NBC didn’t “fire” Chris. He’ll still co-host PFT Live. He’ll still do his podcast, Chris Simms Unbuttoned. He’s still part of the NBC Saturday college football studio show.
And, no, I’m not the next to be “fired.” I own PFT. And while there’s always a chance NBC will decide on the expiration of the current contract or a future one to go in a different direction, PFT isn’t going away until I sell it, drop dead, or decide I’ve had enough.
The fact that I had to set the record straight on something so damn idiotic makes the third option a lot more attractive than it ordinarily would be.
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