A Newsmax Host Wearing The Pants That Broke The Internet, And More Of This Week's 'One Main Character'
Every day somebody says or does something that earns them the scorn of the internet. Here at Digg, as part of our mission to curate what the internet is talking about right now, we rounded up the main characters on Twitter from this past week and held them accountable for their actions.
This week's characters include a sports journalist who thinks straight men need to dress up at the stadium, a New York Times columnist who's never tried Indian food, a United States senator who wants us to go back to the days of Jason Bourne, a news anchor with a very expensive pair of cargo pants and a newspaper CEO who threatened her employees in a Washington Post op-ed.
Sunday
Lindsay Adler
The character: Lindsay Adler, sports reporter at The Athletic.
The plot: After the Arizona Diamondbacks spotlighted a fan on a date at Chase Field last Saturday, Adler critiqued the young man's outfit, tweeting, "I am simply begging straight men to try harder than athletic shorts and a spring training t-shirt on a date."
The repercussion: Adler's dress code advice went over like a lead balloon. Baseball fans ratioed her tweet to the nth degree, ribbing her about dressing to the nines at the ball park.
After initially taking the criticism in stride, she deleted the offending tweet.
Monday
Ezra Klein
The character: Ezra Klein, New York Times columnist and podcaster.
The plot: On Monday, Klein weighed in on the news that Eleven Madison Park, the high-end Manhattan restaurant with three Michelin stars, would switch to a vegan menu when it reopened, lamenting, "There is no doubt that being veg is less delicious. People who argue otherwise are kidding themselves."
The repercussion: Klein's hot take that vegetarian food isn't as tasty got dunked on by a large segment of Food Twitter, especially by people of South Asian descent who told him he had a lot to learn about plant-based cuisine.
Klein, who is himself vegan, later addressed his critics, saying it was silly to interpret his tweets as suggesting vegetarian food is "less delicious than any food with meat."
Dishonorable Mention
Senator Ted Cruz
The character: Ted Cruz, Texas Republican senator, aspiring comic, Cancun spring breaker.
The plot: On Monday night, Cruz mocked the CIA's latest recruitment video, curiously observing, "We've come a long way from Jason Bourne." It should be noted that Jason Bourne is a fictional character created by author Robert Ludlum and famously portrayed by Matt Damon in the subsequent movie adaptations.
The repercussion: Cruz's tweet suggesting America had strayed from its Jason Bourne days went viral and was ridiculed by many snarky commentators, who joked that the senator was just now realizing Bourne wasn't real.
Cruz later tried explaining that he definitely knew Bourne was fake.
Thursday
Greg Kelly
The character: Greg Kelly, Newsmax host, eater of McFish sandwiches for breakfast, cautionary case study in marijuana travel.
The plot: On Thursday, Kelly tweeted a photo with former president Donald Trump, giving a thumbs up and sporting some remarkable pants.
After some pushback, Kelly quipped, "Everyone busting my CRACKERS over the 'pants' — (partially my fault because I called attention to them with the Bugle Boy comment). The truth is, they're BALMAIN (the most prestigious brand in PANTS)—my shoes are by Ferragamo."
"Basically I'm a Sharp Dressed Man," Kelly said in summary.
The repercussion: Fashionistas on Twitter thought Kelly protested too much about his pricey pair of cargo pants, which retail for $1,200, and began roasting him for his questionable ensemble.
Despite Kelly's claims, one fashion-savvy Twitter user pointed out these were in fact Balmain knockoffs.
Kelly later poked fun at his fashion faux pas by joking that he was now partnering with Vogue.
Friday
Cathy Merrill
The character: Cathy Merrill, CEO of the Washingtonian, a monthly DC-based magazine.
The plot: On Thursday afternoon, Merrill penned an op-ed for The Washington Post in which she appeared to threaten the jobs of Washingtonian staffers if they failed to return to the office full-time. "If the employee is rarely around […] management has a strong incentive to change their status to 'contractor.'"
The repercussion: Merrill's op-ed sent shockwaves around the Twittersphere, with many media folks appalled by her call to demote full-time employees to contract workers if they didn't return to the office.
On Friday, the op-ed sparked a company-wide mutiny, with editorial staff tweeting the same message — that they were dismayed by their CEO's public threat to their jobs and refused to publish any articles in response.
Following the backlash to her essay, the headline was toned down from "As a CEO, I want my employees to understand the risk of not returning to work in the office" to "As a CEO, I worry about the erosion of office culture with more remote work."
Read the previous edition of our One Main Character column, which includes Rudy Giuliani's amazing next door neighbor and more.
Did we miss a main character from this week? Please send tips to [email protected].
