A knucklehead sports radio host for Mad Dog radio on Sirius/XM named Dino Costa shared a rumor on Twitter Tuesday night saying Mike Tyson had died in a car crash. Naturally the rumor began circulating pretty quickly before Tyson (or the ghost updating his Twitter account) countered the news saying “My friend called to see if I’m ok. There is a rumor I was in an accident. Thankfully I am doing well.”
Here’s what Costa tweeted to start the mess:
Well buddy, if you’re stressing this has not been confirmed, then don’t throw it out there. That’s pretty simple. You don’t mess around when it comes to proclaiming someone’s death.
Now here’s the worst part. Costa, who undeniably was trying to break some news, went on to blame the rumor on the person who called into his radio station.
“I just arrived home & was on the phone with various people entire time-thankfully it appears that the news on TYSON is not as was reported. To the person who phoned into ourstudio with report, how you could play games with news concerning someones life in that manner is sickening. Its beyond my comprehension how any individual could so recklessly & irresponsibly report something so tragic as though life was a movie…”
I have a better point: to the media member who took a phone call into a radio station and circulated the rumor on Twitter without verification, it’s beyond my comprehension how you could recklessly and irresponsibly do that. You’re not some radio station caller, you’re a radio host. You’re supposed to have some sense of news judgment, and you’re playing the role of gatekeeper. If you tweet about it, you’re making the rumor true.
Some things aren’t worth being first to report the news on … like Mike Tyson being dead. The dude already has enough problems, bro. No need to bury him six feet under before his time. But nice attempt to break some news.
