Bill Simmons suspended from Twitter by ESPN

[MikeDC]

No word on whether he was ordered to bed without supper, just this:

ESPN.com columnist Bill Simmons is serving an ESPN-imposed two-week suspension from Twitter, Steve Krakauer writes. ESPN.com editor-in-chief Rob King wrote a blog post on ESPN.com explaining the suspension, saying it was in reference to a recent Simmons tweet regarding WEEI. -- More.

Some background: This past August, ESPN instituted what many considered to be a horrible policy giving ground rules for how their employees used social media and social networking tools. They made it very clear that their behavior using these tools clearly reflected on the company.

Apparently, this is one of the offending tweets: Hey WEEI: You were wrong, I did a Boston interview today. With your competition. Rather give them ratings over deceitful scumbags like you."

And here's another: WEEI's "The Big Show" was apparently ripping me today. Good to get feedback from 2 washed-up athletes and a 60 yr-old fat guy with no neck.

Not all agree with the suspension: To me, that shows the core problem here. It's one that's far from unique to ESPN, as just about every major media outlet has run into this with the rise of the Internet (and even earlier). The problem is that many media organizations, especially those in print, regard their columnists and reporters as invariably associated with them, which is simply not the case these days. Most prominent people in sports media appear on a variety of platforms, from print to radio to television to Twitter. In my mind, it's wrong to think that just because you hire someone to write certain things for you, you're associated with everything they do and need to have control over them.

How ironic. At a time when the MSM are at full throttle engaging news consumers online, one of their members is suspended from doing just that for doing just that.

I think Simmons is pretty silly, but this whole thing is pretty nutty, no?

 

[Minstrel]

Hmm. I think that's interesting. I can see ESPN's viewpoint...their "personalities" (the people who broadcast either on TV, radio or through writing) are seen as representatives of ESPN. Any time a person is considered a public representative of their company, what they say and do publicly becomes fair game for censure. If an executive of a company were tweeting trash talk about other companies, it could easily be seen as an embarrassment to the company.

Should Simmons be seen as a public representative of ESPN? Considering he has such a big audience largely (but not entirely, I don't think) due to ESPN and most fans probably associate him with ESPN, I think he should be.

 

[MikeDC]

The (blog) writer's reasoning is certainly a bit strange here

it's wrong to think that just because you hire someone to write certain things for you, you're associated with everything they do and need to have control over them.

A little context helps. WEEI is ESPN's affiliate radio station. So basically Simmons, who makes his living as a writer/on-air personality for ESPN, went to a competitor and trashed his employer.

Then, he went to another format and individually bragged about doing so to the world.

In light of that context, it seems fairly indefensible to me

 

[Eastoff]

In my opinion this is no big surprise from Bill Simmons. He acted like an asshole on SportsNation to both hosts. People just need to realize he's an asshole and treat him as such. Instead of trying to restrict him to look like a nice guy.

 

[Shapecity]

Sounds like he's acting out hoping to be fired from ESPN? Or maybe this is all a publicity stunt?

 

[Nikolokolus]

Simmons acting like a douche? Shocker.