OT: Paul Pierce fired by ESPN

[Pointgod]

i love how for some free speech = i can do whatever i want with zero repercussions

You can thank right wing politicians all around the world who have dumbed down the purpose of free speech in order to appeal to their idiot supporters.

[will]

Da Truth an entertaining dude.

[Shaazzam]

i love how for some free speech = i can do whatever i want with zero repercussions

Also, disdain for free speech can = i can do whatever i want with zero repercussions. There are low level employees being terminated right now for semi-lewd or "inappropriate" facebook posts.

And?

[Hero_Panda]

Just curious, how many of us would lose their jobs if they did the crap Pierce did, and your employer found out? I would lose mine.

Are we including posting it publicly on IG?
If not, if your employer fired you because you like to play poker with strippers giving you backrubs, I would hope you'd sue the employer.

Pierce did nothing illegal. He was just an idiot for posting that while being a face for a huge public entity for ESPN, which is owned by Disney.

[ruckus]

Just curious, how many of us would lose their jobs if they did the crap Pierce did, and your employer found out? I would lose mine.

Are we including posting it publicly on IG?
If not, if your employer fired you because you like to play poker with strippers giving you backrubs, I would hope you'd sue the employer.

Pierce did nothing illegal. He was just an idiot for posting that while being a face for a huge public entity for ESPN, which is owned by Disney.

I think that goes without saying. Fully legal activity that takes place within a private residence are not grounds for dismissal UNLESS you post it on social media.

I have no problems with Paul Pierce living his life however he wants to live it. However, once you put your life out there for public consumption, expect judgement and repercussions.

[ItsDanger]

i love how for some free speech = i can do whatever i want with zero repercussions

Also, disdain for free speech can = i can do whatever i want with zero repercussions. There are low level employees being terminated right now for semi-lewd or "inappropriate" facebook posts.

And?

And who determines inappropriate?

[OakleyDokely]

Social media does weed out the morons.

[ruckus]

Also, disdain for free speech can = i can do whatever i want with zero repercussions. There are low level employees being terminated right now for semi-lewd or "inappropriate" facebook posts.

And?

And who determines inappropriate?

Employment contracts and standards of employee conduct?

[visionquest]

Lesson here is play the game, live inauthentically, and don't stray from your company/master's code of ethics...

Lesson is not to broadcast live something that any reasonable would know could get them fired from their company when they are literally a public figure working on live television for a diverse audience (that includes teenagers/children).

Pierce could live authentically all he wanted. He's allowed to do drugs and have strippers, nobody is saying he shouldn't. But to post himself doing drugs and being around strippers on his live feed is incredibly stupid.

It's not about "playing the game" it's about using common sense.

The corporation did what it had to do. Not arguing that.

The more existential question is, the erosion of his freedom to enjoy some time with friends and share it with others.

"Use every man after his desert, and who shall 'scape whipping?"

[Fairview4Life]

Lesson here is play the game, live inauthentically, and don't stray from your company/master's code of ethics...

Lesson is not to broadcast live something that any reasonable would know could get them fired from their company when they are literally a public figure working on live television for a diverse audience (that includes teenagers/children).

Pierce could live authentically all he wanted. He's allowed to do drugs and have strippers, nobody is saying he shouldn't. But to post himself doing drugs and being around strippers on his live feed is incredibly stupid.

It's not about "playing the game" it's about using common sense.

The corporation did what it had to do. Not arguing that.

The more existential question is, the erosion of his freedom to enjoy some time with friends and share it with others.

"Use every man after his desert, and who shall 'scape whipping?"

Huh? He was perfectly free to enjoy some time with friends and share it with others. That's how we all saw the video.

[Fairview4Life]

Just curious, how many of us would lose their jobs if they did the crap Pierce did, and your employer found out? I would lose mine.

Are we including posting it publicly on IG?
If not, if your employer fired you because you like to play poker with strippers giving you backrubs, I would hope you'd sue the employer.

Pierce did nothing illegal. He was just an idiot for posting that while being a face for a huge public entity for ESPN, which is owned by Disney.

I think that goes without saying. Fully legal activity that takes place within a private residence are not grounds for dismissal UNLESS you post it on social media.

I have no problems with Paul Pierce living his life however he wants to live it. However, once you put your life out there for public consumption, expect judgement and repercussions.

I'd bet that if it was Stephen A. Smith or someone who actually makes money for ESPN and isn't actually terrible at his job, they would have probably just suspended him for a week or something and moved on. When you suck at your job, you get a lot less rope.

[dTox]

Is what Pierce did any more outrageous than some of the other stuff that's played on TV? I'm failing to see how WAP (by Cardie) gets a pass yet this doesn't? Nonetheless, ESPN did us all a favour by canning Pierce, he was awful, Perkins should be next.

[Danny1616]

Lesson here is play the game, live inauthentically, and don't stray from your company/master's code of ethics...

Lesson is not to broadcast live something that any reasonable would know could get them fired from their company when they are literally a public figure working on live television for a diverse audience (that includes teenagers/children).

Pierce could live authentically all he wanted. He's allowed to do drugs and have strippers, nobody is saying he shouldn't. But to post himself doing drugs and being around strippers on his live feed is incredibly stupid.

It's not about "playing the game" it's about using common sense.

The corporation did what it had to do. Not arguing that.

The more existential question is, the erosion of his freedom to enjoy some time with friends and share it with others.

"Use every man after his desert, and who shall 'scape whipping?"

By your standard every employee of a company/organization/institution could do whatever they want. There is a reason that every company/organization/institution has an employee manual, code of ethics, rules, regulations, whatever you want to call it.

Tell me, if you had a son or daughter that went to elementary school and his/her teacher was posting public live stories of him hanging around strippers and doing drugs, what would your reaction be? I think the heavy, heavy majority of parents would want that teacher fired.

That is not to say that Pierce can't enjoy some time with his friends and share it with others. The smart thing for him to do was to keep it private and share it with his closest friends. That is what the majority of reasonable people would do. All of us do stuff in private and share it with friends, but have the common sense not to publicly share some of those posts/pictures/videos. It's simple social intelligence to know what should be posted publicly and what should be kept in private and it has to be contextualized with the career you have. Pierce is a public TV analyst for a major sports channel on live cable television with access to a diverse audience ranging from kids to old people.

So no, nobody is preventing Pierce from enjoying his life. He can do drugs, hang out with strippers, and do whatever he wants for all I care. But I'm not going to defend him for broadcasting it live and I'm not going to condemn ESPN for firing him. His freedom was not the issue here. He made a boneheaded decision and he's suffering the consequences of that decision. His freedom isn't the issue.

[ruckus]

Is what Pierce did any more outrageous than some of the other stuff that's played on TV? I'm failing to see how WAP (by Cardie) gets a pass yet this doesn't? Nonetheless, ESPN did us all a favour by canning Pierce, he was awful, Perkins should be next.

WAP gets a pass cause thats her job and thats whats shes known for.

[Danny1616]

Is what Pierce did any more outrageous than some of the other stuff that's played on TV? I'm failing to see how WAP (by Cardie) gets a pass yet this doesn't? Nonetheless, ESPN did us all a favour by canning Pierce, he was awful, Perkins should be next.

Pierce is free to apply for a new job and still be on TV. He can join a podcast, he can make his own podcast etc etc. I don't get your comparison. Nobody is banning Pierce from TV. He was an employee and he was fired.

[Young_Buc]

I'm of the unpopular opinion he shouldn't have been fired. I won't try and defend it, just a personal opinion.

We as a society just care TOO MUCH about what people do in their personal time. That goes both ways: both following, filtering and impressing ourselves for people we don't care about and judging them based on their activities. To answer the question above, if my child had a teacher who was around strippers smoking weed and posted it, if they were an amazing teacher and helping my child learn? No, I would not care. Not my business.

[lolwut]

Lesson is not to broadcast live something that any reasonable would know could get them fired from their company when they are literally a public figure working on live television for a diverse audience (that includes teenagers/children).

Pierce could live authentically all he wanted. He's allowed to do drugs and have strippers, nobody is saying he shouldn't. But to post himself doing drugs and being around strippers on his live feed is incredibly stupid.

It's not about "playing the game" it's about using common sense.

The corporation did what it had to do. Not arguing that.

The more existential question is, the erosion of his freedom to enjoy some time with friends and share it with others.

"Use every man after his desert, and who shall 'scape whipping?"

Huh? He was perfectly free to enjoy some time with friends and share it with others. That's how we all saw the video.

The concepts of "freedom" and "consequence of exercising a freedom" are simply too subtle for some people to comprehend.

A lot of the difficulty comes from the fact that they don't know what "freedom" means to begin with.

[Danny1616]

I'm of the unpopular opinion he shouldn't have been fired. I won't try and defend it, just a personal opinion.

We as a society just care TOO MUCH about what people do in their personal time. That goes both ways: both following, filtering and impressing ourselves for people we don't care about and judging them based on their activities. To answer the question above, if my child had a teacher who was around strippers smoking weed and posted it, if they were an amazing teacher and helping my child learn? No, I would not care. Not my business.

And what if that in entire grade 6 class saw the videos of that teacher doing drugs and chilling with strippers? Yeah, be realistic, 99% of parents would not stand for that.

I do agree with your initial premise, but that's how society is and with social media it's all amplified. However, a lot of this is basic common sense. I've been to strip club with friends and none of us are stupid enough to publicly post videos of us at strip clubs. We all know that could be potentially harmful to our jobs if it went public and our employers found out. Me and my friends occasionally get hammered on the weekend and probably say/do embarrassing things, but we aren't posting videos of us publicly while drunk. This isn't rocket science.

[dTox]

Is what Pierce did any more outrageous than some of the other stuff that's played on TV? I'm failing to see how WAP (by Cardie) gets a pass yet this doesn't? Nonetheless, ESPN did us all a favour by canning Pierce, he was awful, Perkins should be next.

WAP gets a pass cause thats her job and thats whats shes known for.

This I am failing to understand, she's a musician, her job is to create music and entertain, selling sex is not her job, otherwise she'd be a sex worker. All I'm saying is, at the end of the day, they are both on TV, there should be a standard on what is and isn't permissible for all individuals on TV, regardless of what forms of entertainment they offer.

[dTox]

Is what Pierce did any more outrageous than some of the other stuff that's played on TV? I'm failing to see how WAP (by Cardie) gets a pass yet this doesn't? Nonetheless, ESPN did us all a favour by canning Pierce, he was awful, Perkins should be next.

Pierce is free to apply for a new job and still be on TV. He can join a podcast, he can make his own podcast etc etc. I don't get your comparison. Nobody is banning Pierce from TV. He was an employee and he was fired.

I'm actually on the fence about this discussion, and not taking sides. Forget about the Cardi video (since its not really an apples to apples comparison), let's talk in general terms: Is what Pierce has done, any worse than whatever else is on TV? How many music videos do we have of guys throwing money at strippers, talking about popping pills, etc. I'm failing to understand what is and isn't acceptable these days because it seems like the goal post is different when it comes to athletes vs other celebrities.

I do understand that ESPN is owned by Disney, and perhaps that's where they draw the line, which I'm fine with. This is more about the society that we live in, that has different standards for different groups of people, and that is not okay