After Jim Redner, who owns one-man public relations firm The Redner Group, expressed his frustration over bad reviews of his client’s game, Duke Nukem Forever, via Twitter, the game’s publisher dropped him. Now, Redner is out with an explanation for the debacle.
Following less-than-favorable reviews of 2K Games’s Duke Nukem Forever, Redner took to Twitter to express his frustration, writing:
The above tweet got the web buzzing with the term “blacklisting.” Redner later apologized to several news outlets, but 2K Games distanced themselves from the PR man all the same.
Now Redner is out with a statement on Wired explaining the whole debacle. It seems that his anger was triggered by one review in particular, which he declines to identify. “It was a scathing diatribe masked as a review. Hate is a strong word, but I believe after reading his review it is fair to say that the reviewer hated the game.”
He goes on to explain that he never intended to evoke the specter of blacklisting, “I do not support the McCarthy era notion of blacklisting,” he says, going on to explain how publishers have limited numbers of review copies, and that he was going to be more choosy about where they went from now on.
“I personally have sent first person shooter games to one editor knowing that he likes FPS games, but then not sent him a copy of a game based on our national pastime because I know he finds baseball boring,” he says. “That’s not blacklisting. It’s a selection process.”
Although Redner is apologetic about lashing out via Twitter, he still stands by what he said. “It is my opinion that when someone exceeds their journalistic integrity and publishes a scathing, derogatory, uncalled-for review, I have the right to question it,” he says.
Redner joins a long list of people fired for their outbursts on social media. Here are 11 more.
Ashley Payne, Teacher
Ashley Payne, a teacher in Barrow County, Georgia, was asked to resign from her job at Apalachee High School in August 2009 because of photographs and status updates she posted to Facebook.
The problem with Payne’s updates? They showed her drinking alcohol and one update used an expletive. Payne was on vacation in Europe and some of her photographs included her visits to the Guinness Brewery and a local pub in Dublin.
Payne’s Facebook page was private, however she had friended some other teachers in her school. When the principal found out about the photos, she was told to render her resignation or face suspension.
Payne sued the school district in November 2009 because she was “not made aware of her rights.”
Christopher Lee, Congressman
Anthony Weiner isn’t New York politician to get in trouble using social media. In February, Representative Christopher Lee (R- NY) resigned from his post after Gawker published emails the married congressman sent to women on Craigslist.
These emails included photos of a shirtless Lee flexing his muscles for the camera. The Buffalo-area representative resigned less than four hours after Gawker posted the emails and photo.
Connor Riley, Would-be Cisco Employee
In March 2009, 22-year old Connor Riley was offered a job at Cisco. Her first instinct — to tweet about her new opportunity — is pretty common for most people of her generation.
Unfortunately, Riley’s tweet mentioned that taking a “fatty paycheck” would come at the expense of “hating the work.” A Cisco employee responded to her tweet, offering to pass her sentiments along to the hiring manager. Riley lost the job before it was even started.
The event, dubbed the “Cisco Fatty” incident, went viral and was a good cautionary tale for individuals of all ages.
Larry Johnson, NFL Running Back
In the fall of 2009, former Pro Bowl running back Larry Johnson sent a series of inflammatory tweets that got him into some hot water with his employer, the Kansas City Chiefs.
After being suspended for a game for his remarks — which included derogatory remarks about his coach and a gay slur directed at a fan — 32,000 Chiefs fans petitioned the team to release Johnson from his contract. The Chiefs obliged.
Chrysler Social Media Employee
When someone with access to the @ChryslerAutos Twitter account accidentally dropped the F-bomb back in March, Chrysler was not amused.
After first claiming that its account had been compromised, Chrysler later admitted that the errant tweet was sent by an employee of the social media agency that handles the Chrysler account.
It appears that the employee accidentally tweeted from the wrong account. When a similar situation happened to the Red Cross Twitter account in February, that organization responded with humor and forgiveness. Not so for the agency employee. The mis-directed tweet was enough to cost the employee his or her job.
Nir Rosen, NYU Fellow
Veteran war correspondent and NYU fellow at the Center on Law and Security Nir Rosen sparked outrage when he made offensive and insensitive tweets in the wake of the news that CBS chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan had suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault.
Comments like “I’m rolling my eyes at all the attention she’ll get” and “it would have been funny if it happened to Anderson too,” didn’t earn Rosen any online friends.
After backtracking and apologizing for his statements — after first claiming that he didn’t know the severity of the attack when he made his comments — Rosen resigned from NYU.
Tim, CPK Employee
When California Pizza Kitchen server @Traphik sent a message to the company’s Twitter account, proclaiming “black button ups are the lamest shit ever,” CPK’s response was to fire him.
Tim, a comedian with his own YouTube channel, then posted a humorous account of the incident on YouTube. This went viral, CPK was probably annoyed with tons of tweets and phone calls from Tim’s fans, and ultimately, Tim got more exposure for his comedy.
Gilbert Gottfried, Former Aflac Spokesman
Comedian Gilbert Gottfried isn’t exactly known for his tact. Still, when the comedian made jokes about the Japanese tsunami, the people at Aflac, where Gottfried as served as spokesman, were not pleased.
Aflac fired Gottfried from his role as voice of the Aflac duck and then embarked on an innovative social media campaign to find a new spokesduck.
Disgusting Domino’s People
Note to self: Publishing mis-deeds in the workplace is a great way to lose a job.
That’s the lesson that some former Domino’s Pizza employees learned, and we’re glad they did. A few workers filmed themselves doing gross things to food – food that was probably served to customers. They then posted this video to YouTube, because it’s all about the lulz.
Fortunately, some investigative work on the part of Consumerist tracked down the employees behind the video. Domino’s fired the employees.
Today Show Jokester
One of our favorite memes from earlier this year was a classic video from The Today Show archives featuring Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel attempting to understand the intricacies of the Internet.
Apparently, NBC didn’t find the joke that funny (even though the current crew from The Today Show found it fit to comment on the hilarity) and fired the guy that posted the clip online.
Anthony Weiner, Congressman
The Weinergate saga may be coming to an end — now that Representative Anthony Weiner has resigned from his position in the U.S. House of Representatives — but its repercussions will stay with us.
When the New York City congressman sent a lewd photograph of himself to someone on Twitter as a public tweet rather than a direct message, his social media faux-pas became fodder for comedians and generated public calls for his resignation.
It also opened up a larger discussion about the growing role of social media in politics and the separation between public and private behaviors online.
Image courtesy of Flickr, Mrs. Duncan
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