File another one under “stupid tweets that might cost someone their career.”
ESPNU student reporter Marisa Martin decided that last night’s active shooter on the Florida State University campus was just the right opportunity to try out some new comedy lines. Three FSU students were shot and the gunman was killed by police. But that didn’t stop Martin from trying to tie in the football program’s recent controversies and tweet a joke about star QB Jameis Winston being targeted by the gunman.
Even worse, she initially tried to defend her tweet before shutting her Twitter down.
https://twitter.com/passantino/status/535336579384881153
Martin is a student reporter at Alabama for ESPNU’s Campus Connection and not technically an ESPN employee. ESPN does promote Campus Connection on their ESPNCareers.com website here. You can see her trying one of those satirical videos where she tricks Alabama students asking about their college football knowledge using the names of professional athletes below:
The story does get weirder from here. This is Twitter, what else would you expect? Martin later took control of the Campus Connection Alabama Twitter to page to say that she had been hacked. At least she’s studied what to do when you get in trouble on Twitter as an athlete or sports personality and knows the first thing you do is claim you were hacked:
https://twitter.com/UACampusConnect/status/535327160245182464
https://twitter.com/UACampusConnect/status/535334859775164416
I’m not sure the claim “my Twitter was hacked” has actually ever worked, but I suppose it’s worth the effort.
Assuming no hacking took place and those were Martin’s authentic tweets, this was just plain dumb, offensive, and wrong from her on every level. It also shows the risk of ESPNU entrusting their reputation to student reporters because the network is going to be dragged into this controversy as well.
But instead of being outraged over Martin’s tweets, I can’t help the feeling of overall sadness. Here’s a student reporter for ESPNU who had ambitions of forging a career in sports broadcasting. Now, those hopes will be irrevocably damaged because she, like many others before her, couldn’t resist the temptation of making a stupid joke on Twitter. Will we ever learn that it’s not worth risking a career over a few retweets?
