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January 27, 2020

Kobe Bryant's death, along with 8 others, is a terrible tragedy

By Andrea Widburg

It's a tragedy that Kobe Bryant, a hugely talented man who was starting a second career after retiring from pro basketball, died in a helicopter crash Sunday, along with eight others, including his daughter, 13-year-old Gianna Maria; Christina Mauser, a basketball coach; and John Altobelli, a baseball coach in Orange County, as well as his wife, Keri, and their daughter Alyssa.  Kobe was the most famous, so it's his death that gets the most attention.

Although it's scant consolation to his wife and surviving daughters, Kobe did live an incredibly rich and accomplished life.  Gianna Maria, though, was just on the cusp of her own life, as was the case with Alyssa Altobelli.  Sincere condolences go to the family and close friends of all those who died in the crash.  It is a tragedy by any measure.

One of the unpleasant side-effects of the crash is that it revealed that there are a lot of mean-spirited people out there.  Before social media, people lived in circumscribed worlds, surrounded by family, friends, co-workers, and a small number of random strangers along the way.  They knew that, among that number, there would be unpleasant people, but their number and their impact were small.

Social media have changed that.  Partaking in social media has benefits (e.g., keeping up with actual friends, watching funny cat videos, and looking at cool artwork), but it has also brought us face-to-face with the fact that there are a lot of mean people out there, way more than we assumed from the icky relative, the rude clerk, or the boss from hell.  It's painful to know that there are people who, when faced with a pure tragedy, can do nothing but churn out nastiness.

The worst was the decision that Washington Post reporter Felicia Sonmez made.  Within minutes of hearing about Kobe's death, she tweeted out a story from three years ago about the rape allegations against Kobe.  She's since deleted the tweet, but on the internet, everything lives forever:

When called on it, Sonmez defended herself in another tweet she subsequently deleted:

Well, THAT was eye-opening. To the 10,000 people (literally) who have commented and emailed me with abuse and death threats, please take a moment and read the story — which was written 3+ years ago, and not by me. Any public figure is worth remembering in their totality 1/2"

even if that public figure is beloved and that totality unsettling. That folks are responding with rage & threats toward me (someone who didn't even write the piece but found it well-reported) speaks volumes about the pressure people come under to stay silent in these cases. 2/2

The same points could have been made in a day or two, but that's what Twitter does to reporters — it makes speed more important than common sense and decency.

The mob also went after MSNBC's Alison Morris, who stumbled over the words "Knicks" and "Lakers," and ending up saying "Knackers," which the Twitterati heard as the "N" word.  Naturally, they attacked Morris as a racist.

 

 

As they say, to a hammer, everything is a nail, and to racists, everything is about race.  No one stopped to think that maybe a person who works at MSNBC is not the kind to sling around the "N" word.

Morris issued an apology that would have been unnecessary in a sane universe:

And lastly, when President Trump tweeted out his obvious shock and horror about Kobe's death, the blue-check crowd went mad.  Here's just one example from someone who, peculiarly enough, claims to be a man of God:

You can see more of that blind TDS here.

I sometimes wish I could go back to a time when the worst person I knew was the lady who always yelled at us when we went into the Five and Ten Store to browse, not buy.

 

 

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