Gotta say I agree with Tommy that it's probably not a good idea to have multi-national corporations operating as the de facto thought police, and though I despise virtue signalling, it is generally more bad than good to be firing people for what they say on their own time in their "own voice".

Where does it end, though? Who decides? The KKK is a legal organization. If somebody at ESPN supported the KKK, is that fine? Should they not be fired?

Hell, it's not against the law to be racist either. Could you tweet that you hate black people and keep your job?

If these tweets were "on their own time and in their voice" I guess you would be cool with it.

Sorry. Too bad, so sad. We have learned repeatedly recently the first amendment does not protect you from being fired.

It seems that some young folks find that fact uncomfortable when they are on a certain side of the aisle.

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If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

Illinois is an at-will employment state. There's no protected class being violated here. I don't really see the problem with it, especially when they've been told what the rules are ahead of time.

If he absolutely had to do some anti-Trump tweets, make a fake account and post it under there. But, that account probably wouldn't have as many subscribers because it is some random guy, not H-list celebrity Ben Finfer from ESPN1000, and because people are only following you because you work at ESPN is probably why ESPN doesn't want people making political statements from their accounts.

Disclaimer: I am generally against political tweeters/facebookers/instagrammers etc. as I find the forum a complete waste of time to try to discuss anything political.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

He should’ve just came here and started an eventual 500 plus page thread on how awful Trump is and how much he hates him . #catharsis

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Is there any way we could get ESPN HR to take over at DCFS?

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

I agree, Mike, but this is not a first amendment issue. This is about being able to speak your mind in areas that don't involve the law. Corporations want to do our thinking for us. That's a phenomenally bad idea.

Right. Whatever followers Finfer has is because he's able to plug his twitter on ESPN radio. So while they say it's not related to their work, it absolutely is. Finfer doesn't have 2% of his followers if he's an insurance sales guy.

Wouldn't these ESPNers be calling for firings if other media people were praising Trump or praising the KKK? Which isn't against the law. It's their right to do so.

But a company can't pick political sides. So they ban all of it. I get it. Disney had to make this move.

Sometimes you have to decide if employment is more important then tweeting. Finfer didn't think so. That tweet against Trump was more important to him. What did that tweet get Finfer? Nothing. Except being fired.

There are more important/prominent people than Finfer fighting Trump. They've got the cause, Ben. You don't matter. You're a spit in the ocean. That's the way he should have looked at it.

Like I said, now he can tweet all he wants.

Yeah, not much discussion or the adopting of perspectives seems to take place.

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Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

I don't know where the line is, or whether there is a line to be drawn, I just don't.

I guess we should start by considering what tangible good is being done by firing people who say, do, or think disagreeable things, as well as the harm created by allowing those people to maintain their employment. I haven't actually seen anyone contemplate what societal good is being served by immediately ousting these people from gainful employment. It seems people thing it just must be Good because losing your job is Bad and those people are Bad and Bad things happening to Bad people is Good. It's entirely superficial punishment.

Because I could take your "where does it stop" argument a way you hadn't considered: What about flat-earthers, climate deniers, holocaust deniers, 9/11 truthers, anti-vaxxers and the like? Why should they keep their job while thinking such awful, dumb, or wrong things? And who decides that being a racist or sexist is worse or better than not vaccinating your children or denying climate change?

He could also do a protected Twitter account where friends and family can only see his tweets.

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Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

Right. Then you have the head of Disney deciding what's right or wrong. So you ban it all. I get it from their perspective.

Because then there is a lawsuit. The guy who tweets "There should be more gun laws" isn't fired. And the guy that tweets "Donald Trump is a dumb ass" gets fired.

In a court, there is no difference. It's all political opinions on their personal twitter account.

Disney now owns everything. Multi Billion dollar corporation. They're just trying to protect themselves. Makes sense for their interests. Don't like it, don't work for them.

Finfer is different then the others working at ESPN 1000. No wife. No kids.

Everybody else at the station, including the lowly producers, have to think about their family's before sending out a tweet that would risk their job.

It's easier to go against company policy when you don't have to worry about the wife and kids.

The line is very simply drawn by most companies upfront in new hire orientation and the employee handbook: in the modern social media atmosphere, don’t put anything on social media that will bite you (and possibly, in turn, us) in the ass, or risk disciplinary action up to, and including, termination. Pure and simple.

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Not a mult.

That is for sure. I think there's also a degree of being comfortable in what your doing, but not feeling like there's a path forward to enjoying what you are doing... you don't really know what to do to change that, and this might be helpful in him re-evaluating the career path. Local broadcast radio is (and has been) dying very, very quickly. It is not a place to be building a career, especially as a (usually) non-air talent. I have nothing for or against the guy, but having read his good-bye post, I think he is starting to realize that even though you might really, really want to do something, you might have to do something else to make the living that you want. And that happens to a lot of people, but in the last ten or so years, it is really hitting radio people. There's just no money there anymore because stations can put a syndicated show on and they only lose a tenth of a rating point. Advertisers are dropping off to the point that they have to do coordinated PSAs about how radio advertising makes money. If you are a Mully, Hanley, Bernstein -- you ride this out. If you are a Parkins -- you probably are making enough to keep doing it, but you are probably a little worried. If you are a Joe O or Herb Lawrence, I'd be much more worried -- Herb has seen what's out there, and it doesn't look good.

I really am a little annoyed at the Illinois Broadcasting Center shills (whatever the name is now) -- I personally have a moral issue with encouraging people to get into this business, especially the on-air talent. Yet they are getting paid to teach the classes, so they need students.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

I agree with all of this. I think a lot of these guys are 1 dimensional. He kinda falls into the Abbattacola mold(not banging married ladies). These guys typically have 1 sport in their wheelhouse. From anything I have heard on the radio, it was Cubs Cubs Cubs.

Trump is not racist. He just doesn't act the way people want him to. People can't stand that!

Racist people try to bend his will, and he resists.

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I like thinking big. . . If you're going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big.
-Donald J. Trump, BPE

Young folks?

Finfer is probably 40.

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Mike this did not seem to be the feelings on the subject when Schilling got shitcanned of people in your tribe. (Honestly don't remember your take so I won't single you out). Why the sudden change?

Isn’t that pretty much the epitome of virtue-signaling ?

Ben Finfer (@BenFinfer)
12/16/17, 10:01 AM
It’s not ideal to lose a job and have it written about in a major metropolitan newspaper. But there’s now official record of me being anti-Trump and I’m cool with that.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

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Why not add Kale as long long as we’re being rebellious .

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Twitter is an official record?

BRB...

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Only for anti Trump tweets. The stuff Trump himself puts out we, or Bob Mueller specifically, should not consider official.

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Regarding the former, he should be used to it by now.

Regarding the latter -- we're all very impressed, Ben.

I don’t care about Shilling. I am saying Many cheered things like that though. Likely Finfer among them said he was not protected to say stuff.

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If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

You can make the standard warranting dismissal for speech outside of work capacity anything you want, but when that standard is set, it needs to be adhered to.

Schilling was fired for saying bigoted things in a political context, so he would be fired regardless of whether the standard was making bigoted or just political statements.

The problem is, the same standard that got Schilling fired was not equally applied to other ESPN personalities that have said bigoted things in a political context. If the standard is, or was, "saying bigoted things", then Kate Fagan, Sarah Spain, Jemele Hill and the rest of the "ugh, white men" clique among the ESPN rank and file should have been shown the door along with Schilling.