Winnipeg newspaper attempts a hit piece on Jordan Binnington ahead of Game 1, resurfacing old Tweets

[Acesolid]

The writers at that newspaper should be ashamed of themselves.

To run a disgusting one-sided character assassination hit piece on an opposing player (as if he were a politician) in order to try to mentally weaken him for a series is truly a vile thing to do.

I am sickened by this. And I say it as a Jets fan since they came back.

 

[BondraTime]

Modelling career I think

 

[bleedblue1223]

Absolutely. No good will from press on this. My only point is why give them cannon fodder and how many times are we going to see it happen that past Twitter comments come back to cause problems. This ain’t first public explanation we’ve seen.

Twitter is a one way broadcast to huge numbers of people if you’re in the public eye. Just as everyone has right to say his Tweets were not offensive, there are people out there who also have the right to think they are.

Why go there?

I guess I choose to put more of the blame on this issue on the activists like Gackle seeking out tweets out of context. Especially when people like him do it selectively and don't to it to people on their "team" or "side", otherwise we'd be talking about a Roslovic tweet about a gay slur he used.

 

[LGB]

The tweet wasnt remotely bad TO YOU. Do you fall into the demographic he's talking about? If not, then your opinion on if its offensive or not is irrelevant.

Like I would agree with you that theres not much to be offended by with these tweets, but im not in a position to determine that.

Its like if I made a joke about black people, and a black person got offended by it. I cant tell that black person not be offended by it because im not black. I might not find it offensive, but that doesnt mean anything.

You can't tell them not to be offended, but you also do not have to care if they are. There are people in the world who would be offended if I told them I eat pork or had pre-marital sex and etc. You do not need to base your moral compass on other people's beliefs. I think you should be empathetic, but ultimately you have to decide for yourself what you deem to be acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

 

[Number8]

The writers at that newspaper should be ashamed of themselves.

To run a disgusting one-sided character assassination hit piece on an opposing player (as if he were a politician) in order to try to mentally weaken him for a series is truly a vile thing to do.

I am sickened by this. And I say it as a Jets fan since they came back.

I think it’s hilarious. He put the tweets out there and some press guy decided to stir the pot. I’d think some Peg fans will ride him in the game and, if so, great.

If you can’t stand the heat, don’t Tweet!

 

[wpgallday1960]

The tweets are in poor taste and they should have been scrubbed. However he was 19 and we all have done things we regret out of youthful ignorance, so I wouldn’t hold it against him.

What the reporter did in digging this up is equally in poor taste. He should know better.

 

[BrokenFace]

If Bennington was actually xenophobic and wanted to tweet about burkas, he would have said something a lot more hateful than what he did. Instead he tweeted 2 pieces of not-funny observational humor.

If Binnington was actually xenophobic and was in a cab with an annoying driver speaking another language, he would have something outright racist like immigrants don't belong in his country or that they should learn English. What he actually tweeted was a complaint about an understandably annoying interaction.

If Binnington was actually xenophobic and not shy about his tweets (we know he's not shy based on his Twitter history), then he would have tweeted actually xenophobic things in the 6 (or more?) years of tweets this reporter examined.

 

[Edmonton East]

I’ve made plenty of insensitive jokes - as most have.

I’m not stupid enough to put them on Twitter. Not a public figure, but some of my customers might not think all my jokes are knee slappers. Common sense.

He was a kid...

Christ. Here in the US we have a sitting Democrat Governor that took a photo in blackface next to a person dressed as KKK in COLLEGE. And guess what, he's still serving lol. Imagine what that idiot would have posted if Twitter existed in the 70s and he was a kid....

What Binnington said is a non story. Move along.

 

[Arthur Fonzarelli]

Where's the Winnipeg news article about this one? Could it have to do with the fact that they're playing Binnington and the Blues in round 1?

Stuff like this just makes me sick.

Well Roslovic was barely 14 when he tweeted that...

Anyways lousy yellow journalism from the Winnipeg Free Press' Mike McIntyre, although in fairness he did pick it up from another source.

McIntyre guy is new to sports journalism, but has been a crime reporter for 21 years.

 

[Soliloquy of a Dogge]

You can't tell them not to be offended, but you also do not have to care if they are.

Fair enough. That's your prerogative.

Though if your words, actions and beliefs negatively affect your professional and/or personal life, you shouldn't and can't be surprised. It's not being politically correct, or easily offended -- there are some basic norms of decency and respect in 2019 and freedom of speech to say or do things that aren't seen as acceptable doesn't protect you from the consequences of the speech/actions.

 

[sr edler]

Do you fall into the demographic he was referencing/making comments about? If not then it's not up to you to determine if his comments were intolerant or not.

You do know the burqa is fringe in most Muslim countries, right? Most Muslims thinks the burqa is absolutely ridiculous.

You can't have a multicultural society if this is how you're going to run it. Because some people will always act like they're the spokesperson for a particular group of people even if they're not. It only sows discontent between people, and within groups of people.

 

[Throw More Waffles]

It's ironic to complain about the irony of others' complaints - when you are neglecting the fact that while yes, some women in Burqas are marginalized, it is in fact marginalizing to prevent women who WANT to use them from doing so. Perhaps the teenagers on the site aren't the only problem.

I suppose you might know better than the Muslim Canadian Congress. They have no problem whatsoever with the Hijab, but their stance is that there are far FAR more women being forced by law or by community pressure to wear burqas than those that freely wear them (which is a TINY number of people).

This is one of those social questions where there are no perfect answers, but even the Muslim Canadian aCongress considers banning the burqa the far lesser of 2 evils.

So people saying that it’s xenophobic to criticize the burqa are flat out f***ing wrong.

 

[Knave]

If Bennington was actually xenophobic and wanted to tweet about burkas, he would have said something a lot more hateful than what he did. Instead he tweeted 2 pieces of not-funny observational humor.

If Binnington was actually xenophobic and was in a cab with an annoying driver speaking another language, he would have something outright racist like immigrants don't belong in his country or that they should learn English. What he actually tweeted was a complaint about an understandably annoying interaction.

If Binnington was actually xenophobic and not shy about his tweets (we know he's not shy based on his Twitter history), then he would have tweeted actually xenophobic things in the 6 (or more?) years of tweets this reporter examined.

Don't worry, we have a bunch of self-described progressive people up in here making sure this space stays violently white while placing the blame squarely on the people they don't like.

 

[Alex Jones]

Again, what is wrong with those tweets? I've asked a bunch of times and beyond people saying "they're racist" or "they're ignorant", no one has provided why.

There was nothing wrong with 2 of the 3 tweets, the only one that was questionable was the burka joke (which was basically "you can get into a bar underage with a burka because no one wants to force you to take off a burka"),

Okay then.

First Tweet:

I guess I could go 50/50 on this one, as I know that it's an actual issue that has been raised in the past. That said, my issue with it is this...It's either...

A.

A repetition of a pretty common far right talking point that comes along with a lot of pretty anti-Muslim baggage. Since it's not acceptable to simply state that you hate muslims in modern society, we build euphemisms that signal this for us. I would think of it this way...I could tweet the following: "Anyone wonder why southerners have lower educational attainment?? hmm..." and it could legitimately be a genuine question, but then again that's also a pretty common proxy attack that people use since you're not allowed to just state that you hate southerners.

B.

An ignorant question since this is an issue that many countries around the world already dealt with years ago and you can google it pretty quickly. I know this kid knows how to use the internet. I would probably lean toward this explanation, but I still think it's worth discussion.


Second Tweet:

The fact that someone would use a Burka to get into a bar is just an insanely dumb idea, but disregarding that...

It's making the suggestion that Muslims are somehow the recipient of special rights or treatment, which is just blatantly nonfactual. It's also pretty similar to some of the arguments that a lot of hardline idiots make, aka the "Muslims are bad because they present some sort of special danger" type arguments.


Third Tweet:

I don't know how this one isn't offensive. Complaining that your driver is talking on the phone in a different language is offensive. If his problem was drivers on their phone, why doesn't he just complain about that? Specifically pointing out that he dislikes that they are speaking in a different language pretty clearly signifies to me that that is his problem and that is not okay. People should have the right to express themselves as they like without infringing on the rights of others. Speaking a different language than the guy in the passenger seat pretty clearly qualifies as this.


At the end of the day I'll say this. I don't know the guy and I don't know what is intentions were. I don't know if he is a bigot or anti muslim/whatever. What I do know is that some of the things that he's saying are pretty similar to some of the arguments that people that hold those opinions make. He has the right to say things that some of us don't think are okay, but we also have the right to express concern about said statements.

 

[Number8]

I guess I choose to put more of the blame on this issue on the activists like Gackle seeking out tweets out of context. Especially when people like him do it selectively and don't to it to people on their "team" or "side", otherwise we'd be talking about a Roslovic tweet about a gay slur he used.

That I agree with completely. I imagine the guy did it because he’s a hockey fan trying to stir the pot. I don’t know Gackle, but I doubt he’s an activist. If he is, as you suggest there are many more fish to fry and he’s barking up the wrong tree on this one. If he wanted to create a little playoff rivalry and heat, I guess job done.

If people being smarter about Twitter comes out of this then that’s great. Social media gives us all a voice, good or bad. Anyone who’s a parent would be well served to ask their kids “who are you talking to, what are you trying to say, and is it in your best interest?”.

“One day you might interview for a job with someone who’s immigrant father drove a taxi as a third job and used to call his Mom from the cab at night. He might not want to hire you.”

If after thinking about that you still want to Tweet into the vacuum, fire away.

 

[Taluss]

Lol. Our society is absolutely f***ed these days. Some people are probably genuinely pissed he said that smh

 

[Taluss]

People in this society honestly need to grow the f*** up

 

[Alex Jones]

The guy i quoted literally said "you dont say that ****"

I think the point was that you shouldn't say that, not that it should be impossible to say it.

 

[MarkovsKnee]

Doesn't have anything to do with playoff hockey and has become political. Locked.