Penn Problem: Ashton Kutcher has apologised for attacking the sacking of Penn State coach Joe Paterno (centre), who has been accused of covering up cases of child abuse. Picture: Getty Images. Source: Getty Images
ASHTON Kutcher has enlisted a team of communications specialists to help him manage his Twitter feed after he ignorantly tweeted a message in support of fired Penn State football coach Joe Paterno.
Kutcher, 33, sparked a frenzy among his more than eight million followers after he tweeted, "How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste."
As it turned out, Paterno was fired for not properly handling allegations against his longtime assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, who was indicted over the weekend on charges of child sex abuse over a 15-year period.
In 2002, Paterno failed to alert the authorities to the claims of then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary, who said he saw Sandusky in the Penn State showers with a young boy.
Kutcher soon admitted mouthing off in ignorance of the ongoing child abuse scandal in the State College.
"This is an insane story, I just heard paterno was fired, getting the rest of the story now ... Wow," Kutcher said, according to NESN.com.
"Heard Joe was fired, fully recant previous tweet!" he added, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"Didn't have full story. #admitwhenYoumakemistakes."
Kutcher later deleted the series of messages, before issuing a frank apology and handing his feed over to a communications team.
"Clearly the platform has become too big to be managed by a single individual," Kutcher, 33, wrote.
"I feel responsible for delivering an informed opinion and not spreading gossip or rumors through my Twitter feed .... while I will continue to express myself through @Aplusk I'm going to turn the management of the feed over to my team at Katalyst Media to ensure the quality of its content," he added.
The Two and a Half Men star said he had returned home from work late Wednesday when he heard Paterno was fired and "having no more information than that, I assumed that he had been fired due to poor performance as an aging coach," he explained.
His tweet unleashed the wrath of his more than eight million Twitter followers who slammed the actor for his insensitivity, in the wake of the child sex abuse scandal at the school.
"As an advocate in the fight against child sexual exploitation, I could not be more remorseful for all involved in the Penn St. case," he tweeted yesterday.
"As of immediately I will stop tweeting until I find a way to properly manage this feed. I feel awful about this error. Won't happen again," he added.
Read Ashtom Kutcher's full apology over his Paterno Twitter rant
0 comments:
Post a Comment