Aaron Calvin Speaks

[cytech]

I really don't have a problem with Aaron Calvin, I have a problem with his editor and boses. He did the research he was supposed to, but the editor and bosses are the ones who have final say in what it printed.

I look at it from my past experiences. When I was a Auditor my job was to dig into everything and compile it. It was the firm's Manager/Partner's decision what would make the public Audit Report.

I thought he was fired for his own offensive tweets, not for the fact that the article was published. What could the editors have done to prevent Calvin's tweets? I will submit that the Register probably should of conducted a background check prior to hiring him.

Now if the reason he was let go was because of that specific article than I agree completely the editor/s should be held accountable.

 

[isufbcurt]

Mostly on the editor and she should absolutely be fired but I think he should be too because he doesn’t get it either. He’s the scapegoat but he isn’t the victim. The fact he thinks he is the victim is why he needed to be fired too. Just because an editor doesn’t let him publish his crappy story doesn’t mean he thinks the crappy story wasn’t good.

Like I said above, as an Auditor my job was to compile all the information. It was the Partner's job to determine what is in the public audit report and what is called out as problems.

I look at the editor reporter relationship the same way.

 

[isufbcurt]

I thought he was fired for his own offensive tweets, not for the fact that the article was published. What could the editors have done to prevent Calvin's tweets? I will submit that the Register probably should of conducted a background check prior to hiring him.

Now if the reason he was let go was because of that specific article than I agree completely the editor/s should be held accountable.

I am not sure. I haven't looked at the tweets. If he was fired for the tweets then my question would be 1) were the tweets tweeted before he was hired or during his employment? If they were before he was hired then it is pretty weak sauce because they should have seen them in a background check. If they were during employment then yes he should be fired.

 

[clonedude]

Sign at GameDay this morning.... "Ryan Day works at the Des Moines Register". Ouch.

The Register will sure regret this week for a long time. Especially when you add in all the Cyclone fans that dropped their subscriptions too because of all the idiotic questions Randy asked at JP's presser this week.

 

[cytech]

I am not sure. I haven't looked at the tweets. If he was fired for the tweets then my question would be 1) were the tweets tweeted before he was hired or during his employment? If they were before he was hired then it is pretty weak sauce because they should have seen them in a background check. If they were during employment then yes he should be fired.

I don't know how long he has been employed there, but another poster mentioned Calvin's bad tweets went from 2011-2016. I have not reviewed them at all myself to state anything with any certainty.

But as I previously said the DMR should be background checking their employees prior to hiring them, which clearly they didn't follow that practice. Which makes the DMR look even worse because they have a standard they have set for people they write about, and then have a lower standard for people they hire. It is total hypocrisy.

 

[Rods79]

Facts are facts.

The reporter found some offensive tweets by the subject of an article and reported it. That's what journalists do. They shouldn't decide what to report according to its impact on the subject (exceptions for minors, victims of sexual abuse, and families of victims who haven't been notified).

The Register found some offensive tweets by an employee and fired him. That's what companies do. They must make decisions about whether an employee's background is more costly than beneficial.

In both cases, the facts would be exposed sooner or later.

Carson King wisely got ahead of the story about him, became truly transparent, confessed his mistakes, and explained evidence that he has matured. He is likely to land on his feet as a local hero.

Aaron Calvin seems to be focused on defending himself. If he doesn't show himself to be a loose cannon that even the most liberal paper doesn't want around, and if he actually has talent as a journalist (we know he can do good research!), he can still be a free-lancer as that is what most newspaper writers are anyway these days. And then he can spend the rest of his life on the lecture circuit as the poster boy of being canned for just doing your job. His tweets would have caught up with him eventually, even if this incident had never happened.

Again, the tweets should never have been material to the story. Professional Journalists should understand and strive to follow standard ethical codes in practice, which does include deciding what to report following the principle of limitation to minimize harm. Running roughshod and reporting anything they find is tabloid journalism at best. Also, the public and readership should hold these journalists accountable to these ethical standards as part of the relationship of holding the public’s trust.

https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

 

[stevefrench]

Sign at GameDay this morning.... "Ryan Day works at the Des Moines Register". Ouch.

The Register will sure regret this week for a long time. Especially when you add in all the Cyclone fans that dropped their subscriptions too because of all the idiotic questions Randy asked at JP's presser this week.

Solid gameday sign for sure

 

[CYEATHAWK]

I feel like, had Calvin not written this story, and some random person dug up his many offensive tweets, he would have been fired anyway. I can't see anyone wanting to read information from someone with his...interesting worldviews.

I am not so sure about that. The Red Star wasn't "aghast" at what he did......and it wasn't a set up. They know who he is. That place is full of people who think just like him. They were not expecting this kind of fall out to what they did. And now he is the sacrificial lamb as they "gasp" with faux outrage.

 

[Rods79]

I'd like to take your word for it but I don't know if you went to J school or are professor yourself? The notion that this is journalism is alarming.

Don’t take his/her word for it...he/she is way off the mark. It would be troubling if they had any influence on the education of journalists.

 

[Urbandale2013]

Like I said above, as an Auditor my job was to compile all the information. It was the Partner's job to determine what is in the public audit report and what is called out as problems.

I look at the editor reporter relationship the same way.

Maybe that is the nature of the relationship but that isn’t how I’ve viewed it. Auditor relationship is a strict fact gatherer. A reporter/journalist still, as far as I’m aware, writes the story and submits it to the editors who review it. If he was just a fact gatherer that would be one thing. My understanding of reporters is that isn’t the case.

 

[CYdTracked]

I really don't have a problem with Aaron Calvin, I have a problem with his editor and boses. He did the research he was supposed to, but the editor and bosses are the ones who have final say in what it printed.

I look at it from my past experiences. When I was a Auditor my job was to dig into everything and compile it. It was the firm's Manager/Partner's decision what would make the public Audit Report.

Agree for the most part but his interview after he got fired shows he doesn't quite get it either. Completely agree about the editors ultimately are at fault, they could have killed the part about the tweets and avoided this mess and they still aren't owning that mistake. Also not buying that someone didnt tip off AB about the tweets either given the timeline of events. I would bet that someone from the DMR reached out to AB for comment when they were writing the profile piece.

 

[Cycsk]

Agree for the most part but his interview after he got fired shows he doesn't quite get it either. Completely agree about the editors ultimately are at fault, they could have killed the part about the tweets and avoided this mess and they still aren't owning that mistake. Also not buying that someone didnt tip off AB about the tweets either given the timeline of events. I would bet that someone from the DMR reached out to AB for comment when they were writing the profile piece.

They reached out to talk to Carson King. Not hard to imagine they reached out to talk to AB too. Yet, they keep talking about "still editing" and "not having published" until into the evening without admitting that it was their leak in the afternoon that led to Carson King being dumped by AB.

 

[AttakOfDaClones]

You think Calvin’s tweets were more offensive than Carson’s? Agree to disagree.

I don’t get it. How could so many people think quoting a song with the N Word, using gay as a pejorative, & saying F the police is worse than comparing black moms to gorillas and joking about black people who died in the holocaust. C’mon, a blind taste test and I have to think most people would think the 2nd group of tweets is clearly more offensive.

I am in the camp of being outraged this was added to the story and think the apology sucked, but let’s call a spade a spade. There is a reason he felt really bad when they were brought up.

Calvin’s tweets were offensive, but pretty mild as far as old offensive tweets go IMO.

 

[Tailg8er]

I don’t get it. How could so many people think quoting a song with the N Word, using gay as a pejorative, & saying F the police is worse than comparing black moms to gorillas and joking about black people who died in the holocaust. C’mon, a blind taste test and I have to think most people would think the 2nd group of tweets is clearly more offensive.

I am in the camp of being outraged this was added to the story and think the apology sucked, but let’s call a spade a spade. There is a reason he felt really bad when they were brought up.

Calvin’s tweets were offensive, but pretty mild as far as old offensive tweets go IMO.

Yeah, disagree.

A 16 year old quoting Tosh.0 is not worse than a grown man hating police & gay people.

 

[AttakOfDaClones]

Yeah, disagree.

A 16 year old quoting Tosh.0 is not worse than a grown man hating police & gay people.

I don’t think using gay as a pejorative means you hate gay people. If so, we should probably lock Kid Rock up. It was also very common to do so in the 2000’s, though I am truly glad that has changed. Saying F the Police is very common and frankly, sometimes the police suck. I don’t think it means you hate all police. The last Calvin tweet was quoting a Kanye song. Not sure if he wrote out the whole word, but quoting the N word in a song, though ill advised, not the end of the world.

To be clear, I think all of the tweets from both are offensive. My point was to look at the groups of tweets in a vacuum and just don’t see how everyone could truly think Calvin’s are worse. I was 16 about nine years earlier than Carson and saying things like his tweets would have been really bad. Posting them publicly would have been unthinkable. Yet people threw around gay as a pejorative all the time, rapped along to Kanye, and said F the Police when they break up a party.

I know everyone is against what the register did to cast a shadow over this great thing by Carson, INCLUDING ME, but let’s not act like those tweets weren’t incredibly offensive and overrate the offensiveness of Calvin’s bc it’s easy. My overall opinion is that Carson shouldn’t have apologized, Calvin shouldn’t have been fired, and the EDITORS and Calvin should have given a good apology. Then leave it at that so we can get back to concentrating on #bandgate.