On Wednesday night, shortly after Paterno's ousting was announced by the Penn State Board of Trustees in the wake of a disgusting and horribly disturbing child sex scandal at the school, Kutcher reacted. Too quickly. He Tweeted:
How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste
Of course, not surprisingly, this unleashed a fury. What the heck was Kutcher thinking?! He wasn't. And he sure didn't have the whole story. Let this serve as a cautionary tale, celebs on Twitter.
Apparently Ashton Kutcher was quickly informed about why Joe Paterno was fired. And he was, rightfully so, horrified that he'd seemingly endorsed JoePa and, indirectly, the entire seedy child sex scandal that's still unfolding at Penn State. He issued an immediate apology, removed the shocking Tweet, and moved on. Until the next day, when he made the decision to have his management run his Twitter account going forth.
Kutcher is one of the most prominent celebrity Tweeters. Anyone who's spent enough time on Twitter knows that sooner or later, you're going to put something out there that people A. Will completely misunderstand or B. Will totally infuriate your fan base or C. Both. Ashton's decision to have someone else manage his Twitter feed is regrettable (it's fun to feel like you've got a direct line to a celeb without 'handlers' in the way), but understandable, given what happened. Hopefully this incident serves as a reminder to celebrities (and everyone on Twitter, for that matter), to think carefully before they decide to express uninformed opinions for millions to see.