Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Nobody Said Social Wasn't Cruel

Welcome to the gallery of rogues Lindsay Stone.  She is on leave for being a prankster, and we all get to pillory her thanks to Facebook.

Life, Lindsay, isn't fair, and we just looooove to cluck at screw ups.  She gets her own Facebook page where people throw stones (to the tune of 19K "likes" at this posting) and call for her firing.

I recall the last mass bludgeoning -- the Texas Ranger couple blasted by Yankees commentator Michael Kay for "taking" a kid's foul ball.  After helping blow the whole thing up, ABC News at least tries to close the book with the "whole story."

I'm certain I'll get smacked down for saying so, but doesn't this all smack a little bit of cyber-bullying?  Certainly elevating the discourse by screaming at each other.  Fire her.  Freedom of speech.  (We've been watching this since 2011, and of course, last month was one of the multiple anti-bullying months.)

Some advice?  First, think twice (or a whole day) before you post your jokes and spoofs.

Second, when the media firestorm hits, there is precious little you can do.  Going on TV won't really help.

Finally, as the living proof that this digital stuff lives forever, Stone made her post in mid-Oct.  Reaction started around Oct. 20.  Today, she gets to be the pre-Thanksgiving smorgasbord of the media as HuffPo and others make big deals of it.

And why?

Because we're about to hit that ever so slow period of a holiday that no one likes to work.  Lob some pre-chewwed red meat to the masses and we can all go home for early deadlines.