We all know there are countless pros and cons to social media. One of the pros is that it tends to hold people accountable. Which means if you’re viewed as a racist sportswriter, you’ll soon be an unemployed sportswriter.
Terry Frei, now a former writer for the Denver Post, has been fired from the newspaper after a tweet he sent out after Takuma Sato won the Indy 500 on Sunday, becoming the first Japanese driver, or any Asian driver for that matter, to ever do so.
“Nothing specifically personal, but I am very uncomfortable with a Japanese driver winning the Indianapolis 500 during Memorial Day weekend,” he wrote.
Of course, the tweet received an immediate backlash on social.
Bleacher Report’s Erik Malinowski got a screen shot before the Tweet was deleted.
Frei gave this apology below (however the first one reportedly had a book plug), explaining that his feelings were rooted in the fact his father flew missions over Japan in WWII.
“I should have known better and I regret it,” Frei said. “I made a stupid reference, during an emotional weekend, to one of the nations that we fought in World War II.”
OK, I took out the name of a book. pic.twitter.com/b953FbqMEh
— Terry Frei (@TFrei) May 29, 2017
But he also thanked this person for his original tweet.
Of course anything you post on social is forever, so the second Frei posted the tweet, his fate was doomed with one of the most respected newspapers in the country.
This was the statement from the Denver Post:
“We apologize for the disrespectful and unacceptable tweet that was sent by one of our reporters. Terry Frei is no longer an employee of The Denver Post. It’s our policy not to comment further on personnel issues.
The tweet doesn’t represent what we believe nor what we stand for. We hope you will accept our profound apologies.”
Josh Helmuth is the editor of Crave Sports.
Photo: Getty
