We apologize for the tweets that came from a guest of our organization. They were inappropriate and do not reflect the LA Kings.
— LA Kings (@LAKings) May 22, 2013
This was the tweet issued by the National Hockey League's LA Kings after they turned their Twitter feed over to a shock jock who immediately made a rape joke, and then sicced LA Kings followers on critics.
Jess has a Storify of how the entire thing went down last night, as well as a compilation of thoughtful responses, here.
One of the things Jess notes in the Storify is that the LA Kings were warned in advance of letting this asshole take over their Twitter feed that precisely this very thing would happen. He is a known quantity, and anyone who paid the slightest bit of attention knew how this would go. And yet the LA Kings nonetheless chose to ignore those warnings and let him be "a guest of [their] organization."
So it's some kind of colossal cheek to issue an "apology" that seeks to distance themselves from him with a pathetic "the tweets...do not reflect the LA Kings." Whooooooooops yes they do. You chose him, you handed over your social media property to him, and you let him have at it under your brand in direct contravention of warnings that he was a terrible and alienating choice.
You own it. You don't get to say now that his rape jokes don't reflect you. They reflect you plenty.
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