Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio Wants Colt’s Jim Irsay Off Twitter
Twitter has certainly changed the way people converse, creating access to previously distant celebrities and notaries. And more importantly, the media has had to adjust accordingly, deciding how the social medium is navigated. Some see Twitter as a threat, others as a tool.
For Mike Florio, who tweets from @ProFootballTalk he’d rather see Jim Irsay shut down his Twitter account than be judicious and protect any semblance of journalistic integrity.
Through Saturday’s NFL Draft, Irsay tweeted
The only people hoping for trade with Free#93 are the ones that have to play against us…he’s MAYHEM with plenty of gas left in the tank!
— Jim Irsay (@JimIrsay) April 28, 2012
… Which in it’s 140 character limitations would clue someone in to thinking Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney will not be traded. If a journalist read this, they would likely make some phone calls to verify their interpretation of the tweet and disseminate the information collected.
For Florio, this infinitesimal tidbit is sufficient to drive web views and therefore fodder for him to report his assumption as fact and tweet this inaccuracy to his more than 268,000 followers.
Jim Irsay says Dwight Freeney won’t be traded wp.me/p14QSB-2HfM
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) April 28, 2012
Now, this is something many, many, many mediocre minds who have cracked the code of capitalizing on computer literacy do regularly: subject media consumers to their assumptions while propagating the reports as fact.
But what makes Florio’s latest gaff worse is, when alerted to his inaccuracy, he claimed ignorance to his illogical leap and then tweeted that I, or someone, should tell Irsay to shut down his twitter account.
@Julie_Buehler . . . Then he should get off Twitter.You work for them Colts.Tell him to shut it down.Someone should.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) April 28, 2012
Apparently freedom of speech only applies certain individuals.
Bottom line is: no one should shut down their twitter account. Florio is welcome to tweet inaccurate reports, as I am welcome to call him out on it and Irsay is welcome to tweet whatever is on his mind. The problem is not the tweets, but how the media misinterprets their veracity, comes to erroneous conclusions and misrepresents their findings to consumers who have lent this media credibility.
So keep tweeting Florio. We’ll keep watching. And having to correct you and others.
Zennie Abraham