Comm455/History of Journalism

Celebrating Osama Bin Laden’s death.

Rashard Mendenhall of the Pittsburgh Steelers was not in a celebratory mood.  The fourth year running back took to his twitter account and expressed his anger over the celebration along with his belief Bin Laden did not order the attack.

The post sparked outrage among fans across the country forcing the Steelers to meet with Mendenhall to address his comments.

Mendenhall is just one of many athletes that are now under the microscope for everything they say, tweet, or act out.  It begs the question, where should the line be drawn.

Should players be held accountable by their employer like a majority of common citizens who work for a private company, or is their First Amendment right being violated?

Twitter has also exposed the ugly side of sports writers.  A perfect example occurred today.  The Philadelphia Flyers tried to restrict access to new goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov to only after games he plays in.  This new policy did not sit well with some of the Philadelphia writers.  This led to a feud between a blogger and two beat contributors on twitter.

The media is trying so hard to maintain they know more than you the reader do, and yet they seem to be the ones who act the most juvenile on twitter.  Perhaps I’m following the wrong writers, but it seems to have become an epidemic and it needs to stop.