Twitter + Big Mouth = Job Loss

Who knew that Twitter could be so damaging to your career? While it makes sense that a person could lose his or her job for ranting in a room full of people, it almost seems silly to think that the same result could follow a grievance written in 140 characters or less. Unless, of course, you have 1,203 followers – then it's like you're ranting to an entire auditorium of people. Thus, when The Redner Group decided to tweet an angry/threatening comment responding to negative Duke Nukem Forever reviews, the one-man PR firm got into a lot of trouble. According to AdAge, @TheRednerGroup tweeted that “too many went to far” with their reviews of the game. “We r reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn't based on today's venom,” the tweet said. This tweet cost The Redner Group its biggest client. 2K Games TTWO promptly dropped the PR firm from its roster, which prompted The Redner Group to tweet three apologies. “I have to apologize to the community,” the firm's founder and sole employee, James Redner, tweeted yesterday. “I acted out of pure emotion. I will be sending each of you a private apology.” Later, he tweeted: “I need to state for the record that 2K had nothing to do with this. I will be calling each of you tomorrow to apologize.” After that, another tweet: “Again, I want everyone to know that I was acting on my own. 2K had nothing to do with this. I am so very sorry for what I said.” Separately, he told AdAge that he “used a public forum to voice my complaints” and “poured my soul into the project.” “When I read the review I felt like a father trying to protect his son,” he said. If he had ended his comments there, it might have been easy for the gaming press to forgive him. But he wasn't done. “In hindsight, I should have approached the writer directly,” he added. And that's where the real problem is revealed: despite all that has happened, it seems that if he had the chance to do it over again, he would still make a threat, albeit privately. That revelation is just as offensive (if not more so) than his tweet. If he does it in public, we at least know what's going on. In public, there could be repercussions for threatening to withhold review materials in retaliation for a negative story. But when PR professionals make these threats behind closed doors, how is the journalist being threatened supposed to respond? Don't get me wrong – I am not opposed to PR professionals who wish to question a review that sounds questionable. But when threats are involved on either side (FYI: journalists who make threats are no better than the PR professionals who make them), what can be done? More importantly, what should be done? Perhaps it is time for journalists to begin to document these threats and take them public. If consumers know what's really going on, they will become more skeptical of game reviews but ultimately take the side of the party being threatened. This would diminish the effectiveness of a threat and (in time) put an end to the problem. Follow me @LouisBedigian