The Witch Hunt Continues

[Canary42]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/57393217

Another cricketer who had teenage twitter problems.

The stupid thing is, this sort of historical (and hysterical) "crusade" will actually make the situation worse as racists stir up an inevitable backlash (as exampled on this forum).

Racism will be defeated by education, not ramming age-old transgressions down everyone's throat.

[andy-hughes]

ich - // How do you know the investigation is ridiculous? //

It is ridiculous for the reasons I have already outlined.

By definition, if you investigate somethimg, it is because you want to know more about something, to discover something that you didn;t know before, and see if that helps you to reach a decision about what you do next.

Exactly what does anyone - and I'll ask you, since you are posing the question about its validity - do you possibly think is going to be 'uncovered' by an investigation by a load of suits who know a wholte lot about cricket, and probably very little about investigation - how to do it, what to look for, and what to do with what they find, if anything, which I very much doubt.

There will be an interval of time while this young man is pilloried in the press for youtfhul stupidity, a loads of suits will wonder what to do next, then they'll say something about 'lessons being learned' - and he will get his job back.

Watch this space.

[ichkeria]

Yes I would imagine it will be cleared up. That is the point of it.

[andy-hughes]

ich - // Yes I would imagine it will be cleared up. That is the point of it. //

It will be cleared up, but not because of their 'investigation'.

They reacted without thinking - no change there, so now they have to go through the motions of an 'investigation' when clearly there is nothing to 'investigate', then say they have 'investigated' and move on.

It's about saving face because they jumped the gun.

The result will be the same, it's just the time-wasting that's wrnng.

[sp1814]

He isn’t being pilloried in the press. Exactly the opposite is happening. The narrative the papers are following are that these were ugly tweets but they were sent ten years ago when he was a teenager.

And this *can* be investigated - the ECB might want to check the source of the leaks. Was there malice? Was he being blackmailed? Were these the only tweets? Were they all from a decade ago, or does his social media profile contain other messages? Were they simply light-hearted communications? Were they directed at anyone specific? What are his relationships with his team mates now?

[andy-hughes]

sp1814 - // And this *can* be investigated - the ECB might want to check the source of the leaks. Was there malice? Was he being blackmailed? Were these the only tweets? Were they all from a decade ago, or does his social media profile contain other messages? Were they simply light-hearted communications? Were they directed at anyone specific? What are his relationships with his team mates now? //

Do you seriously imagine that the ECB has the resources, muich less the intelligence, the will and the competence, needed to find all those things? Seriously?

They will scratch their heads, realise this is way beyond their pay grade, they can't get any information, thy wouldn't know what to do with it even if they could, so they'll wait a while, mumble about lessons being learned, and carry om.

[ichkeria]

No I suspect sp is quite correct: a sensible level headed voice in all this. They are after all this chap’s employers. And it’s much better to get to grips with this properly than let it run unchecked with goodness knows what accusations flying about.
Arguably they should have acted a little sooner, for everyone’s good.

[sp1814]

A-H

No idea.

I only found out what ECB stood for yesterday.

[Ellipsis]

Andy, every post you make on this further demonstrates your cluelessness about Ollie Robinson, his employment status when he made the offending tweets (as a professional adult male cricketer), his employment status now (still a professional adult male cricketer), and the duties of an employer when it comes to accusations of racism.

[douglas9401]

Is there nothing you don't have the inside track on Mr Hughes?

[andy-hughes]

douglas - // Is there nothing you don't have the inside track on Mr Hughes? //

This week's lottery numbers ... what women want ... er ... that's about it.

[andy-hughes]

Ellipsis - // Andy, every post you make on this further demonstrates your cluelessness about Ollie Robinson, his employment status when he made the offending tweets (as a professional adult male cricketer), his employment status now (still a professional adult male cricketer), and the duties of an employer when it comes to accusations of racism. //

Oh dear ...

[jno]

I wonder what people would be saying if it turned out some promising young cricketer was found to have tweeted "Hitler was right" or telling anti-Semitic jokes?

[Mozz71]

Depends how old he was. If he was a kid at the time had grown out of his idiocy, then I'd same exactly the same as now.

[Mozz71]

A better question jno, would be if he was an Asian cricketer who had made anti-British tweets ten years ago. Then I feel some here would be far less sympathetic.

[10ClarionSt]

Witch don't just happen to sports people. Sometimes there is vindictiveness to go with it.

[10ClarionSt]

"hunts" ^^^^^^^^^^

[barry1010]

Employers certainly comb the social media of potential employees looking for evidence of suitability or otherwise.
Every one of my family has 'official' accounts in their own names where they post only positive things. Our real accounts are a different matter - no hate or racism or anything like that, though.

[Mozz71]

Absolutely 10CS. The case of the film director James Gunn springs to mind. He was publicly critical of Trump, so a right wing group uncovered some very dodgy joke tweets from 15 or so years back, which had already been acknowledged and apologised for, and managed to get him fired by Disney. He was rehired a year or so later when Disney realised they'd been used.