Cardinals pitcher learns a valuable lesson
Everyone knows by now that anything you say on Twitter in public or private is permanent. Oh, you can delete it, but someone took a screenshot of it before you did, especially if you’re a public figure. Just ask Anthony Weiner.
Speaking of wieners, 22-year old Cardinals pitcher, Carlos Martinez was not overtly saying anything inappropriate on Twitter, but he was “favoriting” pornographic images and videos others had shared on Twitter. The problem is that favorites are not private unless an account is set to “protected,” which Martinez’ was not.
To see the favorites of any twitter user, just add “/favorites” after their username, and voila, you know what they’re favoriting. We suspect that Martinez had no idea that it was public, and he has since removed the offending links.
According to MLB.com, the Cardinals organization had learned of the content on Martinez’ Twitter feed this Monday, long before any articles on the topic were published.
Team members regularly get trained on appropriateness online
KSDK.com reports that Cardinals General Manager John Mozeliak regularly speaks to the team about social media etiquette and that they are clear about what is not appropriate behavior. Mozeliak said, “He made a poor decision from some degree on what he was doing. It also sounds like he may have been hacked too from my understanding on how much was involved in all of this. So guys have to be smarter.”
Ah yes, the old “he got hacked” public relations spin.
What Martinez AND YOU need to do right now
The truth is that Martinez didn’t really hurt anyone but himself, and he clearly didn’t know his “favorites” were public knowledge, since he has no track record of tweeting inappropriately, or sending nastygrams over direct message. He said he was “embarrassed,” but should apologize over Twitter and it will become yesterday’s news (unless some of the favorites were like bestiality or something that isn’t mainstream porn).
The lesson here is not only that favorites are public, but that someone needs to learn how to use an incognito browser. Not that umm, anyone here does or even knows what that means, but Martinez should definitely Google it…
