Never was much of a fan of anonymity, of hiding behind it, particularly when expressing opinion on one matter or another. Share your thoughts. Come out and play. But put your real name on it. Put your face on it. Show some guts.
Well, now the stupidity and bravado caused by anonymity, erstwhile though it was, has caused, rightly or wrongly, Philadelphia 76ers executive Bryan Colangelo a whole lot of headache and heartache. It might cost him his job.
In a story published this week by The Ringer, Colangelo is painted as a man who used burner accounts on Twitter to defend himself, to rip his own players and head coach, to criticize former Sixers exec Sam Hinkie, to give out information that he would or could not forthrightly dispense under his own identity.
He has admitted to being behind one of the accounts, but has denied involvement in four others. The Sixers are investigating the matter, all as Colangelo is reportedly contacting some of those criticized in the accounts, saying he has no knowledge of their motives or origins. Some have purported that someone close to him is responsible.
Whether Colangelo really is connected to the tweets, beats me. The evidence provided in the story is circumstantial, but substantial enough to raise serious questions, questions investigators and Colangelo will have to answer.
Read the story for the details and come to your own conclusions, or refrain from drawing any.
If Colangelo was using social media to advance his own agenda, it wouldn’t be the first time a sports executive has used some vehicle to do so. Letting information out to the public via various channels as a means of changing attitudes and facilitating business has gone on for years — both on the team side and on the side of agents who might be campaigning for trades, attempting to pump up the value in a player or in a deal or to help accelerate a deal elsewhere. Reporters are tipped off on a fairly regular basis by insiders for reasons that go far beyond the good of the public to know.
That’s not the only way real news and so often rumors get started, as some are downright baffling to the actual parties principally involved in a transaction or to those holding sensitive information. Sources with any number of motivations in any number of circumstances pass along tips, sometimes on account of relationships with reporters, sometimes because they actually do want the truth to come out.
There is usefulness to anonymous sources that are properly vetted being used to relay what’s real. It happens. Sometimes to a positive end, sometimes to a negative. Sometimes those of us in the media protect sources by not naming them, but, in those cases, a reporter and editor know who they are. Even then, at times, it’s bogus.
Ironically enough, the Colangelo story itself came to light by way of information passed along by an unknown source, and, yet, the information gained seemed to the gatekeepers at The Ringer as not just compelling, but connected.
We can argue over whether the evidence was hefty enough to publish without further reporting.
What is ironclad, though, is the concept that these days of social media are dangerous, days when innuendo, rumor, hearsay, criticism, indictment, accusation, ridicule run rampant, all as a majority of those participating, even the well-intended, cloak themselves in anonymity, with an anonymous screen name.
It’s amazing how bold some folks become, the keyboard courage they find, the inside info they pass along as fact or as something less than that, when nobody knows who they are.
If Colangelo was behind the burner accounts reported in the story, the information dispensed often was self-serving, defensive, petty, and weakly communicated. It might also have been illegal, given how some of the information dispensed may have violated privacy laws.
It seemed beneath a trusted individual responsible for running an NBA team. Not that those guys are all angels, but they typically don’t go to such lengths on such a platform in such a way to advance their own points of view or to undermine the work or status or reputations of others.
I do not know the truth on this particular case.
But in a time when social media is the way it is, more and more, we all will be faced with increasing questions about the veracity of information that emerges. Stuff will come out about issues, situations, entities, teams, coaches, players, executives, individuals of all kinds, and we will have to consider and weigh that stuff, knowing that some of it is complete nonsense, some of it is real.
As long as there are anonymous voices, loud voices cowering under cover, and there are more of them now than ever before, there will be a need for ever-present filters to sift through what they say. A nose for BS must be strong in anyone who wishes not to be taken, whether it involves your favorite team or the political party with which you affiliate, on the social media you use.
The truth will be cluttered, sometimes concealed, sometimes revealed.
Good luck discerning what you see.
Faith and trust are tough to build and buy into when your information comes from the faceless and nameless. And gutless.
GORDON MONSON hosts “The Big Show” weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone.
Follow @GordonMonson