Yesterday, we talked about the scuffle on Ashton Kutcher’s Twitter page, when Ashton got on his Twitter to defend Joe Paterno, then deleted those tweets after all of his Twitter followers basically told him to STFU. Ashton claimed that he didn’t know or realize the full extent of the situation at Penn State, and he apologized and said that he was going to stop tweeting. That lasted a few hours, and then he started tweeting again, of course. He tweeted the header photo tagged “What’s a picture worth?” and of course he also had to give us a lengthy, self-absorbed essay on why we shouldn’t blame him for being so crass and stupid. Here is that essay, titled “Twitter Management”. The only editing I’ve done on this is some paragraph breaks:

Up until today, I have posted virtually every one of my tweets on my own, but clearly the platform has become too big to be managed by a single individual. When I started using twitter, it was a communication platform that people could say what they were thinking in real time and if their facts were wrong the community would quickly and helpfully reframe an opinion. It was a conversation, a community driven education tool, and opinion center that encouraged healthy debate.

It seems that today that twitter has grown into a mass publishing platform, where ones tweets quickly become news that is broadcast around the world and misinformation becomes volatile fodder for critics.

Last night after returning home from work, I walked by the television and simply saw a headline that Joe Paterno had been fired. Having no more information than that, I assumed that he had been fired due to poor performance as an aging coach. As a football fan and someone who had watched Joe’s career move from that of legend/innovator to a head coach that fulfilled his duty in the booth, I assumed that the university had let him go due to football related issues.

With that assumption (how dare I assume) I posted a tweet defending his career. I then when about my evening, had some dinner, did a little work, and about an hour later turned on ESPN where I got the full story. I quickly went back on my twitter account and found a hailstorm of responses calling me an “idiot” and several other expletives that I’ve become accustom to hearing for almost anything I post. I quickly retracted and deleted my previous post; however, that didn’t seem enough to satisfy people’s outrage at my misinformed post.

I am truly sorry. And moreover am going to take action to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. And as an advocate in the fight against child sexual exploitation, I could not be more deeply saddened by the events at Penn State.

A collection of over 8 million followers is not to be taken for granted. I feel responsible to deliver informed opinions and not spread gossip or rumors through my twitter feed. While I feel that running this feed myself gives me a closer relationship to my friends and fans I’ve come to realize that it has grown into more than a fun tool to communicate with people. While I will continue to express myself through @Aplusk, I’m going to turn the management of the feed over to my team at Katalyst as a secondary editorial measure, to ensure the quality of its content. My sincere apologies to anyone who I offended. It was a mistake that will not happen again.

[From Ashton’s Twitter]

I just… Jesus, he’s such a douche-face. Let’s take it point by point:

*“Where ones tweets quickly become news that is broadcast around the world and misinformation becomes volatile fodder for critics.” First, it should be “one’s”. Second, where was the misinformation besides Ashton’s OWN lack of information. It’s not “misinformation” to say “Ashton Kutcher tweeted this, and then deleted it.” That’s reporting. And those “critics” are the same people who are defending CHILDREN who were raped and abused – a cause that Ashton should be well aware of, right?

*“Last night after returning home from work, I walked by the television and simply saw a headline that Joe Paterno had been fired…” I realize that television work moves faster than film work, and Ashton might even need to be at the studio for 16-hour days or something, but he’s got a giant trailer and he’s got enough breaks in his day – the only way you could avoid hearing about this story is if he literally hadn’t picked up a newspaper, read anything online or watched TV all week. Which I don’t buy.

*“With that assumption (how dare I assume)”… this is the problem stupid people have with free speech. Free speech doesn’t just apply to you. It also applies to people who disagree with you. Ashton as the right to say, tweet, write, assume, whine, cry and lie about whatever he wants to. Everyone else has the right to respond and call him a d-bag. That’s free speech.

*The whole last paragraph is just funny. Like his Twitter page is a newspaper or something. “Editorial control” = bitch please. Go bone some club girls, doucheface.

Photos courtesy of Fame & WENN.