Robbie Farah’s life imitating roller-coaster week to forget took another turn last night when he was awarded the Brad Fittler medal for most outstanding NSW Origin player. The award is a welcomed reminder of what Farah is good at but it’s his twitter presence that continues to dominate headlines.
It has been eye opener of a week for sports tweeters. In the wake of Farah’s troll attack, unsavory tweets Farah had made about our PM Julia Gillard were exposed, undermining the Farah’s anti cyber-bullying crusade. In September last year, Farah was asked what he would buy the PM for her 50th to which he replied ‘a noose’. While this jibe does not have the same venom as a personal invitation to commit suicide or share the depravity of an attack on the recently deceased, it does highlight how easy it is for sports stars to run foul of public opinion. In the wake of the controversy Farah released this statement:
I have written to Prime Minister Julia Gillard today to apologise for any hurt caused by a tweet I posted in 2011.
As you are aware I have been vocal in recent days about criticising those who say some pretty disgraceful things through social media and I have appreciated your support in relation to that cause. It is an experience that has highlighted the hurtful nature of unthinking comments and even those which are sometimes put forward as ‘black humour’.
In the course of this I have been alerted to a ‘tweet’ I made last year in relation to the Prime Minister which was in hindsight clearly offensive. At the time I did think about what I had done and removed the ‘tweet’ soon after posting it but that of course doesn’t repair the damage.
I make no excuse and offer my sincere apologies. I can only say that I have learnt a lot in recent days and I hope that everyone in the community can learn about the pain that we can cause through such comments.
Hopefully the whole situation will only serve to encourage everyone to think about what we are really saying before we hit the ‘send’ key.
via Wests Tigers
This comes in the same week as twitter furor involving former Brisbane Lions and Port Adelaide midfielder, Scott Harding who accidentally released John McCarthy’s name via twitter before all of his family had been notified of his death. These aren’t isolated instances, the Olympics threw up it’s share, and have ignited debate as to whether sports stars should be allowed to tweet at all. It would surely erase a channel where players can embarrass themselves, their family, teammates, and club. Daily Telegraph and Fox Sports journo, Paul Kent doesn’t agree but believes players should be educated as to how best utilize social media:
People need to remember this, that when you’re tweeting something, you’re not just doing it to your mates or your followers, you are effectively publishing. And it is defamatory, you could be sued. If someone had deep enough pockets to want to sue you they could sue you for defamation for things you say on Twitter.
Via Fox Sports
It will be interesting to see if the Robbie saga will be education enough? What you publish sticks and people can read into your words in which ever manner they like. As such I see Farah’s ‘Noosegate’ a clear giveaway of his political leanings which would lead me to my next question. What would you get Tony Abbott for his birthday? I’d start with some shorts.
Picture by Mark Kolbe at Getty Images
