Donald Sterling Tweet Gets Turtle Rock Studios Manager Fired
The Donald Sterling scandal has resulted in some collateral career damage.
Video game developer Turtle Rock Studios reportedly fired its community manager for some controversial tweets about the Los Angeles Clippers owner.
As virtually everyone on the planet knows owing to saturation news coverage, Sterling has been banned for life from the NBA for his racist comments caught on tape, and the league is in the process of forcing him to sell his ownership interest in the team. He was also fined $2.5 million.
In follow-up tweets, Turtle Rock — perhaps best known for the Left 4 Dead and Evolve multi-player games — referred to Olin as “our former community manager” yesterday and apologized for his remarks that were “in stark contrast to our values.”
In his social media comments, Olin was merely addressing the issue of personal privacy rights that may have been violated in the Donald Sterling case. He also assailed the media for its blanket coverage of the situation.
After a backlash on social media which apparently led to his termination, Olin issued an email statement to various gaming sites to clarify his views on the Donald Sterling situation:
“Anyone who follows me knows my tweets were not in support of Sterling’s actions. Rather, they were promoting three core tenets I believe in: 1) The harm sensational media presents to society. 2) The importance and sanctity of your privacy within your own home. And 3) The right to be whatever you want to be as an American, as long as it isn’t hurting anyone else. That last point not to be confused with condoning Sterling’s actions, which I don’t.
“That said, it’s disappointing to see that a select few in Turtle Rock and 2K Games management bought into this hysteria without even having a conversation with me – or even thoroughly reviewing the context of the tweets themselves. Ironically, it serves as a great example of why I hold tenet #1 above so close to heart. That said, everyone should totally still buy Evolve. The guys and gals making that game know their ***, and are making it good.”
Here is Olin’s initial tweet that got him in hot water followed by his final comment:
Here’s an unpopular opinion: Donald Sterling has the right as an American to be an old bigot in the security of his own home. He’s a victim.
— Josh Olin (@JD_2020) April 30, 2014
Final thoughts: I believe in racial equality & do not endorse bigotry in any way. I also believe in free speech and decry sensational media. — Josh Olin (@JD_2020) May 2, 2014
Do you agree or disagree with the way Turtle Rock Studios handled the situation with its community manager after he referred to Donald Sterling as an invasion-of-privacy victim on Twitter?
