That old teacher I had called out for a tweet from 2015.

My high school history teacher, Mr. Duvall, got dug up on Twitter last month for a joke he made about a politician almost ten years ago. He retired early and the local paper ran a piece on it, saying he was 'forced out' even though the school board hadn't said anything yet. Has anyone here seen someone get canceled based on old stuff that felt more like gossip than a real problem?

4 comments

4 Comments

morgan_king362mo ago

Wait, they ran an actual newspaper article calling it a "forced out" before the school board even said anything? That's wild, sounds like the paper was trying to make a story where there wasn't one yet. I saw a guy from my hometown get dragged for a dumb tweet from 2012 about a video game, and his boss made him delete it but that was it. People love digging up old stuff just to start drama, feels like gossip dressed up as news.

sanchez.mary2mo ago

That "gossip dressed up as news" thing you said is spot on... I read a piece online about how local papers are running these stories because they get clicks now, not because it's real journalism.

grant4782mo ago

Have you ever tried calling the paper's editor directly when something like that happens? I learned the hard way that if you don't speak up fast, the story takes on a life of its own and nobody corrects it. What worked for me was keeping it simple - just point out the facts they missed and ask them to update the article with a note. Most local papers will do that if you're polite and persistent about it, because they don't want to look sloppy. But you have to do it within a day or two, otherwise the damage is done and nobody cares about the correction.

jamieb801mo ago

Yeah and what gets me is how fast these local papers jump on stuff without checking if its even true. My buddy's dad was a coach at our high school and some kid posted an old photo of him from a Halloween party where he was dressed as a pirate with an eyepatch and people started saying he was making fun of disabled people. The paper ran a story about parents wanting him fired before anyone even asked him about the costume. @grant478 is right about calling them out quick because by the time the school board said it was a non-issue, the damage was already done and nobody cared about the follow-up. I honestly think some of these reporters just scroll through old tweets looking for anything that might get clicks, not caring if it has context or not. It feels like we've all become detectives digging through peoples pasts just to find something to be mad about.