Yesterday morning as I drove to work, which by the way is about an hour long trip, I listened to my favorite morning radio show “Kidd Kraddick in the Morning”. The Kidd Kraddick morning show is basically 5 DJs who talk about their life, events in the news and celebrity gossip. They have a few segments that are dedicated to celebrity news, and they also get the biggest names in Pop music as guests.
The day before Selena Gomez had announced that her mother was pregnant. One of the radio show hosts jokingly made a remark that Selena Gomez might in fact be pregnant and her mother was going to fake a pregnancy to allow Selena from tarnishing her name. It was an outlandish supposition that anyone who normally listens to that show knows is routine (I had the same thought when they said Selena Gomez’ mother was pregnant. After all, stranger things have happened in Hollywood) and meant for the sake of comedy. The show hosts didn’t believe that, and the radio station didn’t receive the first complaint over the segment. Not only does the Kidd Kraddick show go easier on celebrities than other forms of media, but they also run a successful charity for terminally ill children called Kidd’s Kids that Justin Bieber was involved in a couple years ago.
Shortly afterward Selena Gomez tweeted that she was upset by Kraddick’s remarks, and Justin Bieber chimed in with a Tweet saying “Smooth Kid, Real smooth smh”. Within an hour Kidd Kraddick was a trending Twitter topic, the story had changed to Kidd Kraddick wishing an abortion or miscarriage on Selena’s mother and millions of Twitter users were tweeting threats against the talk show host.
I listened to the whole radio segment that day, and wasn’t even aware of the threats or outrage until the next day when I listened to their show and they mentioned it. The next morning Kraddick apologized to Selena and her mother, even though what was said on his show was no worse than what celebrity gossip writers say about pop music stars daily.
To understand why Selena Gomez would be upset you have to look no further than Kidd Kraddick’s Twitter page. His picture has been a picture of himself with Selena Gomez the last time she was on their show. She is a recurring guest, and the hosts speak highly of her almost on a daily basis. Justin Beiber was also a regular guest when he was an up and coming act. Bieber and Gomez ended up deleting their tweets after the flood of threats started pouring in and Scooter Braun contacted Kraddick. It hasn’t been confirmed if Selena heard a false report concerning the show and believed the miscarraige rumor or if she took offense to the actual broadcast.
The simple fact is that this situation should have never been vented on Twitter, especially by young celebrities who command such a following of immature teenagers. When people look to you for thought leadership, it’s important that you maintain a level of professionalism and avoid creating a mob mentality, especially one based on rumor and innuendo. Selena has obviously been on the Kraddick show several times and no doubt had the ability to make a call to their studio. If she was upset by something that was said on the radio that would have been a much better route to take.
It is a major responsibility to have several million followers on Twitter. Even though your average ‘Belieber’ has about a quarter of the marketing power of a real adult person with a small following, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez have extremely large followings that are fanatical about their respective icons. I don’t know how many CDs they buy, but one thing the followers of the two are obviously good at is sending death threats.
I don’t know about you, but I am mortified by the lack of foresight on the part of Selena Gomez and the attitudes of her followers. I don’t follow pop music that closely, in fact the only time I ever hear Gomez’ name is on the Kidd Kraddick show (Is that Irony I smell?), but until yesterday I had never heard anything negative about her personality and certainly didn’t hold her in contempt of her actions. If anyone should be empathetic to death threats from fanatical celebrity followers, wouldn’t the girlfriend of Justin Bieber be that person?
It’s no secret that social media is a powerful tool that needs to be wielded responsibly. Ashton Kutcher recently handed over his Twitter account to Katalyst, his PR firm, because of a snafu he made in regards to comments about another celebrity. He acknowledged the great responsibility that broadcasting to so many potential listeners brings with it. Could Selena Gomez, someone who makes up half of what could be called the most powerful couple in Hollywood, bar none, really be that oblivious to these facts?
So in the end, what do you say? I can’t hold it against Selena Gomez for taking up for her mother, but in that position with what was said as well as the context, I wouldn’t have taken offense if it was my mother. If she responded before even hearing the broadcast, that is a whole other level of irresponsibility. Even though they removed their instigating tweets, they still haven’t set the record straight. I heard Kraddick’s apology this morning, and am waiting on Selena’s. Hopefully this small incident, even though weighted by the sheer number of death threats, will teach Hollywood a lesson that Social Media Marketers know too well…. The power of a tweet.
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Selena Gomez reaction was more than OK.
Kidd Kraddick has made it publicly, Selena has the same right.
There are rules of decorum and these were by Kidd Kraddick injured.
Selena Gomez “Who says” line “It’s such a funny thing, how nothing’s funny when it’s you”
.. Kidd Kraddick now you know, how it feels.. it’s all funny.
Basically, his comments were unfunny and mean-spirited, but even when Kidd Kraddick has lost all rules of decorum towards Selena Gomez.. death threats are the wrong way.
P.S.
Family is family,
Family is personal,
Family is private.. let’s see how you react..
Meiner,
Under normal circumstances I would whole heartedly agree with you, but Selena Gomez is in a rare position where everything she says has the potential to cause riots or cause some other form of dysfunction.
I truly don’t believe you listened to the broadcast because there wasn’t anything mean spirited at all, and you can’t in the right mind refer to what went on that day as comments. It was akin to something you’d see on Saturday Night Live, and if this misunderstanding hadn’t happened (J-Si mentioned that Selena removed her tweet because she misunderstood what was said) then someone else would have cracked the same joke later that day.
People are still under the impression that Selena was hurt or offended, and I think she should be working to set the record straight on that. If she was truly offended by what was said, maybe show business isn’t her calling. She has asked for scrutiny, and there will be millions more jokes about her and her family on the level of what Kelly said Monday or worse. The point is that her frivolous reactions on Twitter have the potential to cause substantially more damage than a bad joke. In cases like that it doesn’t matter who’s right or wrong, it’s Selena who is responsible for the actions of her fans after sending a scathing Tweet.
Twitter is a tool for most professionals, but when a tool is powerful enough it becomes a weapon. While everyone should practice a certain level of responsibility, you need be much more cautious with a chainsaw than a screwdriver.
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Kidd Kraddick vs. Selena Gomez .. this was not nice or where the fun ends …
Now there are opinions, Selena Gomez has to consider in advance what they tweed, so that the fans not go ballistic.
But Kidd Kraddick first made it publicly in front of a large radio audience, without worrying about the consequences.
His team has an average age of 37 years plus.
Selena Gomez is only 19 years young.
She has exactly the same right, publicly on the manner, how about her family was spoken, to complain.
Her tweed-reaction was more than OK.
Family is family
Family is personal
Family is private
And exactly these rules of decorum were by Kidd Kraddick injured.
In the song “Who Says” by Selena Gomez, there is a line of text “.. It’s such a funny thing, how nothing’s funny when it’s you ..”
Well, maybe know now Kidd Kraddick how it feels .. “a funny thing”
Basically, his comments were unfunny and mean-spirited, but even when .. death threats against Kidd Kraddick are the wrong way.
Please do not forget ..
Family is family
Family is personal
Family is private
.. and let’s see, how you react .. “when it’s you”
You see, Kid Kraddick vs. Selena Gomez? That is entirely what’s wrong with this picture. There is no feud, no one is against Selena Gomez. I think a big problem with the generation behind mine is that there was too much reality TV during their youth. Do people really expect celebrities to play out arguments with other celebrities on a public stage? The PR teams of Gomez and Bieber most likely told them the same thing I’ve said, that they need to watch what they tweet. Bieber just tweeted a few words, I mean it didn’t amount to anything and didn’t explain anything (which could have possibly propogated the trouble), but it still outraged fans into making threats on the life of others. Regardless of any character flaws Bieber and Gomez have, I don’t think they wish that kind of treatment on people.
It shows a disconnect with reality when someone doesn’t realize the effect they have on a mob. I truly believe that you won’t be seeing more activity along these lines from Gomez on her Twitter account regardless of what anyone says. I mentioned that she should apologize, but really what I’d like to see is her learn from this, and I’m sure there are people in her camp that have went over the consequences of a normally innocuous action.
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“Regardless of any character flaws Bieber and Gomez”
Here we see quite clearly, why they are on the side of Kidd Kraddick.
They seem to have the same weakness, that they accuse Gomez and Bieber.
No matter in what contexts they try to justify it
.. the family of celebrities is never a part of public law ..
Selena Gomez has not otherwise expressed and accordingly .. the crew of Kidd Kraddick has behaved clearly wrong.
I ask again:
If i start now and make really bad jokes publicly about her family, how will you react?
You can see from their present defense-situation for Kidd Kraddick .. and it is not even family .. they start to act publicly.
Selena Gomez has done nothing else.
Meiner,
I can’t really undersand your comments. Is English your first language? I know a little spanish and dutch if that would help I’ll send you a message or something.
I don’t think you are getting this story in the correct context, or you may be a kid still, I don’t know. You are taking my comments out of context as well, which means we can’t clearly have a debate on this subject. Also, this is old news (Celebrity news dies faster than the tweets that carried it). I was trying to make a lasting point about the damage that you can create if you have a large Twitter following, whether you’re Selena Gomez or Chris Latko or one of the YouTubers who have half a million followers. It’s a responsibility that isn’t to be taken lightly.
To put it in context for you, I’m not a Kidd Kraddick fan page, this blog is about Social Media and Marketing. I really have no interest in celebrity bickering or if Selena Gomez is a good person or not, it’s about her irresponsiblle use of Twitter. That is the story here, if you’d like to view Articles I write on the News I suggest http://adam-justice.com , and if you like Celebrity Gossip my friend Grace has a Celebrity blog at http://celebsnark.com/ . The explosion of death threats on Twitter has a far reaching impact on us all as society becomes increasingly digital. Selena Gomez happens to be part of the Twitter story here, not the other way around.
I’ve spoken to several consultants today and asked their views on this, and everyone is pretty much in agreement that Selena was irresponsible on this occasion. The only people defending her use of Twitter are the kids that follow her and Justin Bieber. There are about 7 million of them (Some believe 22 Million, but that’s not accurate. Half of Justin’s followers are following Selena too, so it’s not 8 million + 14 million, and 50% of Twitter accounts are fake, have 0 Tweets or are robot controlled spam machines). 7 million is not a number to balk at, even if it is a bunch of kids aged 9-17. It just takes 1 of them who is off their rocker to buy into false allegations and hurt somebody. The logical world has put this to rest, but fanatical twitter users are still carrying it on and that begs Gomez to set the record straight. She is portraying the image that she’s for Cyber Bullying here by allowing her mob to stay active, and yes, it is her responsibility. It should be obvious now that she exercises more control over her fans than most celebrities.
I respect your opinions Meiner, and you’ve been far more gracious than other members of the Disney mob, but I think you’ve gotten the wrong idea about what point I’m trying to make here. Just as I would never condone death threats or wishes of harm to an unborn fetus, I can’t imagine Selena Gomez would condone what has transpired because of her actions, even if they weren’t intended to cause an online riot. That is why I’m perplexed by her lack of further comment, it’s like she thinks that deleting the tweets made it all go away.
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I have spoke with Meiner a few times, I was merely offering to discuss this issue in his native language so he would understand exactly what we were discussing, it is important to communicate effectively if you want to communicate at all, and it was clear that Meiner doesn’t fully understand this post, or most of the news surrounding the incident. Meiner is intelligent, but does not have English as a first language. To imply that he has bad grammar is incorrect, it’s merely a language barrier.
Finally, this is a blog about Social Media, Marketing, and Business. If you want to argue over whether Kid and Kelly or Justin and Selena was right, this is not the place, you need to find a celebrity gossip blog. If you want to argue over the implications of using a Twitter account with several million followers to spread rumors and innuendo whether intentionally or not, you need to justify death threats and other products of that type of action. If Selena Gomez was right in what she done, the tweets would still be live on her Twitter. The simple fact is that someone who controls her PR and Marketing had them removed because it was in fact not right.
This my personal addition to this statement: I would like to hear from some celebrity new media marketers, or some experts on the psychology of an online mob on this. I do not want to hear from fans of Selena Gomez and Justin Beiber, and neither does my readership. You’re the subject here, and it’s clear where you stand already.
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