Defined as “reacting suddenly or without careful consideration of one’s words or actions,” is the most recent fault of too many tweeters who experience very serious consequences.
Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne), for example, recently published a racist tweet toward former Obama aide, Valerie Jarrett, resulting in ABC’s cancellation of Ms. Barr’s No. 1-rated TV show, her reruns scrapped and her dismissal from the talent agency, ICM Partners.
Photo Courtesy of Time
The President of @ABCEntertainment, Channing Dungey, stated that “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.” Referring to the cancellation, Chairman and CEO of Disney, @BobIgerCEO tweeted, “There was only one thing to do here, and that was the right thing.”
Donald Trump (@realdonaldtrump) has pioneered this now-pervasive practice of communicating almost exclusively through Twitter without thought or regard for his audiences. Before the week was out, the president offered what the media panned as both self-serving Memorial Day and ABC response tweets. All in spite of his press secretary’s admonition that her president, Mr. Trump was “simply far too busy to think about a show being canceled. “We have a lot bigger things going on in the country right now.”
And rapper Kanye West continues to tweet his admiration for Mr. Trump as a “fellow polarizing figure, someone who defies norms and expectations,” much to his followers’ disappointment.
After Ms. Barr excused her 53-character racial slur as “Ambien-tweeting,” the parent company @SanofiUS tweeted “While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.”
Business magnate @WarrenBuffet provides a comment that Ms. Barr, Mr. Trump, and Mr. West can learn from: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things (tweeting) differently.”
As we coach in our Los Angeles-based executive media training @READYFORMEDIA … think before you tweet or prepare to take the heat!