People Whose Careers Were Ruined Due To Controversial Tweets

Social Media plays a huge role in society today as it is a way for people to discover breaking news and events. As people have accounts on various social media websites, we must be careful with the content that we post online. Twitter is one of these social media websites that we need to be careful with. There have many cases where someone posted controversial tweets on the site that caused a lot of uproar. On top of the backlash and death threats, some people have lost their jobs due to their controversial tweets. Here are 6 People Whose Careers Were Ruined Due To Controversial Tweets:

1. Roseanne Barr:

The comedian has made headlines in the past for controversial tweets and antics. Barr experienced a bit of a career revival due to the reboot of her hit sitcom Roseanne. The reboot was an immediate success and renewed immediately for a second season. However, Season 2 of the Roseanne never happened as the show was canceled due to Barr’s thread of controversial tweets about Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor to former President Barack Obama. The controversial tweets included remarks of racism and attacked Jarrett’s political beliefs. Although Barr later apologized and claimed that she was under the influence of Ambien while posting the controversial tweets, the damage was already done. Although Roseanne got canceled, ABC created a spinoff called The Connors, with mostly all of the same cast and crew minus Barr (who ABC cut all ties with).

2. Anthony Weiner:

The disgraced former US House of Representative from New York has made headlines over controversial tweets regarding sexting, all while being married and having a son. The first incident caused Weiner to resign from Congress after he sent a link of a sexually suggestive photo of himself to a woman via Twitter. The photo was later publicized. The second incident occurred a few years later when additional photos were released during his failed bid to be elected as New York City’s Mayor. This resulted in the former Congressman to confess that he had sexted at least three females since the first scandal ended. The last incident in 2016 resulted in a 21-month jail sentence after the FBI caught him sexting a 15-year-old girl. Weiner was released from prison early due to good behavior this past February. However, the former Congressman must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

3. Justine Sacco:

One of the most viral cases of someone losing their job due to posting controversial tweets is that of Justine Sacco. While making the long journey from New York to South Africa in December 2013, Sacco, the senior director of corporate communications at IAC at the time, posted some jokes on Twitter (she had 170 Twitter followers at the time) making fun of the issues people face when traveling and the bubble that white Americans live in. It was this one joke she tweeted during her layover in London that ruined everything for her: “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” This controversial tweet was posted right before the 11-hour flight from London to Cape Town took off.

During the 11 hour flight, the tweet sent Twitter users ablaze as thousands of people (celebrities included) tweeted directly at Sacco furious. Sacco had no idea all about all the turmoil her tweet caused until the plane landed in Cape Town when her phone blew up with tons of texts and notifications. She ended up losing her job and being the most hated person in the world.

4. Roland Martin:

The journalist has gotten in trouble for his anti-gay comments in the past. However, after posting some controversial tweets that contained homophobic remarks about the David Beckham H&M Underwear ad during Super Bowl XVLI, Martin was suspended by CNN. Shortly after his suspension ended, Martin departed from his role as a contributor and commentator for CNN a year later. The reason for his departure was due to new boss Jeff Zucker wanting to the network to distance themselves from Martin and his controversial tweets.

5. Alicia Ann Lynch:

Alicia Ann Lynch gained internet notoriety due to her posting a photo on her Twitter and Instagram social media accounts of her Halloween costume in 2013, which she thought was cool and clever. Want to know what she dressed up as? A bloody marathon runner from Boston Marathon Bombings, a tragedy that happened six months prior to Halloween 2013. The controversial post resulted in her getting fired from her job and received a countless amount of death and rape threats. Nude photos, her Driver’s ID, and her family home address were leaked online. Lynch and her family received hate mail and threatening phone calls as well.

6. Nir Rosen:

Nir Rosen is another person whose career was ruined due to posting controversial tweets. Lara Logan, the Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent for CBS News at the time, made international headlines after it was reported that she was sexually assaulted while covering the February 2011 riots and Hosni Mubarak’s resignation in Egypt. At one point during the riots in Egypt, Logan and her CBS Film Crew were blindfolded and handcuffed at gunpoint while their driver got beaten up.

When the reports of Logan being sexually assaulted came out, Rosen posted a few controversial tweets regarding the incident on the social media website that didn’t sit well with the rest of the Internet. Content of the controversial tweets included, “Jesus Christ, at a moment when she is going to become a martyr and glorified we should at least remember her role as a major warmonger,” Rosen posted. In another tweet, Rosen suggested that Logan was trying to upstage Anderson Copper, who got hit in the head several times while covering the same ongoing events in Egypt.

Rosen later posted an apology on Twitter for his controversial rant on the social media website. As a result of the backlash from his controversial tweets, Rosen ended up resigning from his fellowship position at NYU’s Center on Law and Society.