It was very briefly a feelgood story. Carson King held up a silly sign with his Venmo account asking for beer money, and when money started pouring in, immediately decided to dedicate the funds to the children’s hospital in Iowa City. ESPN and other outlets publicized the story, Venmo and Busch agreed to match funds, and soon $1 million had been raised. But the internet’s symbol is a duck devouring its own milkshake-covered tail, so the story soon turned to poison.
The Des Moines Register decided to profile King, and in the process of researching the story, a reporter dug through King’s Twitter feed until finding racist jokes posted in 2012 when King was 16. After the reporter mentioned the tweets to King, King expressed disgust and shame at his own actions, and then publicly expressed those sentiments.
The Des Moines Register has been nothing but kind in all of their coverage, and I appreciate the reporter pointing out the post to me. I want everyone to understand that this was my decision to publicly address the posts and apologize. I believe that is the right thing to do.
— Carson King (@CarsonKing2) September 25, 2019
Despite King’s comments, internet sleuths pursued the reporter, investigating their social feed until finding racist and homophobic tweets posted between 2010 and 2013. The Des Moines Register responded to that news by firing the reporter.
In related news, TweetDelete is a service that can delete your tweets in bulk or on a schedule.
(Image via Wikipedia.)