By Carla Harrington
Recently I was trying to find contact information for a professional whose creative skills I had admired some 20 years ago. I thought our firm could team up with him on a project.
He has his own company now, but I could not remember its name. So I “googled” his name and specialty. Power of the Internet: his Twitter account and other relevant search results quickly materialized on my computer screen.
I clicked on his Twitter.
Oh!
My!
Huh?
Scrolling down, I read a series of crude rants against various religious groups, ethnic groups, political candidates, and their parties. Some comments were punctuated with the *f* word. Others were profanity-free, but equally vulgar. One vaguely threatened violence against a specific religious group.
Very offensive. And kind of scary.
It was so bad, I wondered if someone had hijacked his account. But his Twitter photo and business Web site (which also came up in the search results) confirmed this was indeed the person I had remembered from years before.
I cannot imagine that anyone reading those tweets would want to do business with him.
We certainly don’t.
There are two ways to look at this experience.
“Gee, I’m glad I know what he’s really like…so I can stay clear.”
Or
“Gee, it’s a shame somebody so good at his craft is ruining his professional reputation this way.”
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