A Des Moines Register reporter is apologizing for his own offensive tweets amid a backlash over his recent report that exposed two racist social media posts from an Iowa man who raised $1 million for a children’s hospital.
Register reporter Aaron Calvin wrote a profile Tuesday about Carson King, a 24-year-old Altoona man who went viral earlier this month after holding a sign on ESPN’s “College GameDay” asking for donations on Venmo to pay for his “Busch Light Supply.”
He ended up raising more than $1 million after he said he would make a donation to the University of Iowa’s Stead Children’s Hospital and Anheuser-Busch and Venmo offered to match his donation.
On Tuesday, The Register and local media reported that Mr. King published two “racist” tweets in 2012 when he was 16 years old.
“A routine background check of King’s social media revealed two racist jokes, one comparing black mothers to gorillas and another making light of black people killed in the holocaust,” The Register’s Mr. Calvin wrote.
Mr. King said he was “embarrassed and stunned” when confronted about the tweets. He deleted the tweets and apologized, saying, “That’s not something that I’m proud of at all.”
Still, Anheuser-Busch announced it was severing ties with Mr. King, saying in a statement that his social media posts “do not align with our values as a brand or as a company and we will have no further association with him. We are honoring our commitment by donating more than $350,000 to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.”
The saga has brought scrutiny upon Mr. Calvin and The Register, which has defended digging up Mr. King’s old posts. Executive editor Carol Hunter wrote a statement posing the question, “The jokes were highly inappropriate and were public posts. Shouldn’t that be acknowledged to all the people who had donated money to King’s cause or were planning to do so?”
“The counter arguments: The tweets were posted seven years ago, when King was 16. And he was remorseful. Should we chalk up the posts to a youthful mistake and omit the information?” Ms. Hunter wrote. “Eventually, Register editors decided we would include the information, but at the bottom of the story. We thought we should be transparent about what we had found, but not highlight it at the top of the story or as a separate story.”
She also said local media reports and Mr. King’s apology came before The Register’s profile was published, but critics have accused the paper of bringing the tweets to Busch’s attention before its announcement to sever ties with him.
Unmoved by The Register’s explanation, Twitter sleuths went on to dig up old posts by Mr. Calvin dating from 2010 to 2013 that “used a racist slur for black people, made light of abusing women, used the word ‘gay’ as a pejorative and mocked the legalization of same-sex marriage by saying he was ‘totally going to marry a horse,’” The Washington Post reported.
Mr. Calvin has since deleted the tweets and posted an apolgoy Wednesday morning before locking his account, The Post reported.
“Hey just wanted to say that I have deleted previous tweets that have been inappropriate or insensitive,” he reportedly tweeted. “I apologize for not holding myself to the same high standards as the Register holds others.”
The Register has opened an investigation into Mr. Calvin’s tweets, The Post reported.
