Twitter Hall Of Shame

Kelly Steele, a campaign staffer to Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., had to eat his Twitter words because he formed them into satire, a dangerous rhetorical art best practiced by those who are not working for politicians. And the worst part is that Steele wasn't even taking a cheap shot at the rival campaign of his boss.

Steele tweeted a photo of a frowning Rob McKenna, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, at an Asian event and included the text, "Why aren't the speaking English? #ASIANS." He was poking fun at a McKenna staffer who earlier this year lost her job for tweeting the same words but not in jest.

Death threats and wishes are a sad state of Twitter reality, but it's a federal crime to aim such rhetoric, whether real or hyperbolic, at the president. Jarvis Britton is the latest to learn that lesson. He was indicted today for threatening to kill President Obama.

Britton, who was denied bond, tweeted his first threat against Obama in June and, despite a warning visit from the Secret Service, posted a series of violent musings over the next three months. Here's a sampling of Britton's tweets:

"Free Speech? Really? *Let's Test This!* Let's Go Kill The President!"

"@BarackObama I wish you were DEAD!"

"What if the secret service interviewed me yesterday because they want me to be an assassin for them? That would be hella cool!"

"@BarackObama Your Time Is Coming!"

"Might get in some [expletive] for this post, but has anybody ever killed the presidential candidate?"

"If somebody killed the presidential candidate, I honestly wouldn't give a [expletive]! Probably would give a toast! #FREEDOMOFSPEECH"

"@BarackObama Alabama will see my power in the next 36hrs! Word to the secret service!"

"Can the president stop it? He only has 36hrs!"

"Who wants to put a bullet through @BarackObama head?"

"Putting together a team to take out the president! Got three people already, who else wants in?"

"Serious question? If you knew about a terrorist group planning to kill the president, would you tell? I kinda wanna see if they can! F.E.A.R."

"Yes you can kill a president with cyanide. who would put that in water/coffee?"

Until Sunday, Katie Moody was just a senior administrative coordinator at John Hopkins University and a New England Patriots fan living in the wrong city, Baltimore. Now she is the scorn of the Twitterverse because of a crass tweet she posted after the Baltimore Ravens beat the New England Patriots 31-30 on a last-second field goal.

The tweet was aimed at Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith (@TorreySmithWR), whose younger brother died in a motorcycle accident a day before the game. "Hey, Smith, how about you call your bro and tell him all about your win— Ohhhh. Wait. #TooSoon?" Moody wrote.

Smith's teammate, running back Ray Rice (@RayRice27), was among the many tweeters who lambasted Moody for her poor taste. "@katiebrady12 smh u are terrible I hope you know the word karma," Rice tweeted. "A tweet that might have received about 10 seconds of consideration will be her legacy," The Baltimore Sun noted in an editorial.

Moody's employer also was pulled into the controversy when people learned that she worked at John Hopkins. "The social media comment that made light of the Smith family’s loss represented the thoughts of one individual," the school said in a statement. "It does not in any way represent the Johns Hopkins community."

TJ Lang's profanity-laced tweets aimed at replacement referees in the National Football League may be a candidate for "the most retweeted tweet of all time." But the Green Bay Packers lineman's outburst over arguably the worst officiating call in NFL history also may cost him dearly.

Lang acknowledged as much in the tweet that, as of last check, had been retweeted 95,120 times. "Fine me and use the money to pay the regular refs," he griped.

U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens did not reap what he sowed when he was killed in a terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, but with this entry into the "Twitter Hall of Shame," Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov is reaping what he sowed on Twitter by lambasting Stevens.

Zyuganov, whose Twitter account is now private, insulted Stevens after he was murdered. “The American ambassador to Libya was shot down like the lowest dog," Zyuganov tweeted. "He was the main expert for the Libyan 'revolution'. What he reaped, he sowed."

The culprit worthy of shame in this instance isn't so much the Kansas City Chiefs as it is the person behind the professional football team's Twitter handle. But the brand took the PR hit because the employee's identity has not been released.

That employee forgot that the customer is always right -- the customers in the sports world being fans -- and decided to send a pointed direct message to a critical fan. Direct messages are private, but as we've seen before, recipients tend to make them public when the senders are important.

In the case of the Chiefs, the Twitter handler sent a direct message that said, "Would help if you had your facts straight. Your choice to be a fan. cc get a clue." The recipient, Travis Wright (@teedubya), shared a screen shot of the message, and more criticism of the Chiefs ensued.

The Chiefs apologized -- sort of. The writer of the DM posted this follow-up tweet: "I apologize to the fans for my response to a tweet sent to me earlier. No excuse for my actions. I am truly sorry and it won't happen again." But one reason it won't happen again is because the juvenile in charge of the Twitter handle blocked Wright.

Picking a Twitter fight that escalates to the point where you tell a celebrity to "go hang yourself" will have consequences -- if only short-term public embarrassment.

Tanya Heti learned that when she told Charlotte Dawson, a judge on "Australia's Next Top Model," to hang herself. Heti was suspended with pay from her mentoring job at Monash University while the school investigated the incident. Dawson had contacted the school by email to report Heti's hostile language.

But the conflict ultimately appears to have done more damage to Dawson than Heti. Backlash from the incident sent Dawson into a state of depression, for which she was hospitalized. Dawson's Twitter account is now private, but in an open letter as part of the #StopTheTrolls campaign, she said she will not leave Twitter, as critics suggest.

"If somebody uses Twittter to send pornographic images of children, that's not OK," Dawson wrote. "If somebody uses Twitter to scam money out of people, it's not OK, just like the real world. If someone uses Twitter to encourage someone to suicide, to intentionally harass and intimidate people, THAT. IS. NOT. OKAY."

Assassination attempts against the president are no Twitter-joking matter. Make the threats in the city that President Obama will be attending for a political convention-- like 21-year-old Donte Jamar Sims did -- and you'll likely end up in jail.

Claiming to be high on marijuana at the time, Sims posted five tweets threatening assassination. He reportedly admitted to the tweets when officers visited his home and wrote an apology at the police station. The judge ordered Sims, who faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, detained until trial because of his criminal past.

UPDATE, Sept. 8: The Secret Service visited 16-year-old Alyssa Douglas (@Alyssa_Douglas) after she tweeted an assassination wish for President Obama. The Clarksville, Ohio, student said "someone needs to assassinate Obama ... like ASAP" and included a vulgar hashtag in her tweet.

You can't be the voice of Leo the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle" on children's television and the poster boy of political filth on Twitter. That's the message Nickelodeon sent "American Pie" actor Jason Biggs after he posted, and later deleted, a series of vile tweets about the wives of the men on the Republican presidential ticket.

The Twitter curator Twitchy broke the news about Biggs' disgusting tweets last week, and Fox News jumped on the story today. "I can't even get into the real details," Fox's Dennis Kneale said in a purposefully vague report on the obscenities aimed at Janna Ryan and Ann Romney, as well as vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan.

After fielding a weekend of online complaints about the tweets, Nickelodeon issued a statement that condemned Biggs' tweets, apologized for linking to the actor's Twitter feed and insisted that Biggs behave in future "public communication."

Golfer Luke Donald fell into Twitter's "Weiner trap" (named after disgraced Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y.) -- he accidentally posted a public tweet that he meant to send privately as a "direct message." In Donald's case, the tweet criticized the design of a golf course that had just gotten the better of him.

Sharing the sexually explicit, and sometimes illegal, details of your "happy football life" on Twitter will hurt your chances of making that life a profession. University of Florida safety Will Hill learned that when National Football League teams thought twice about drafting him after seeing his tweets.

"Negatives: Raised concerns about some poor off-the-field choices via his Twitter account, but later claimed his account was hacked," one scouting report about Hill said before the 2011 draft. "Still, some NFL personnel may be concerned about the content of his account and his character." No team picked him in the draft.

Fortunately for Hill, the New York Giants believe in second chances. Hill deleted his Twitter account after the controversy that cost him a draft selection, and the Giants signed him as a free agent this year.

Clueless men regularly make foolish statements about women who have been raped, but women usually know better. Krista Ford, the daughter of Toronto, Canada, Mayor Rob Ford and a former lingerie football player, is the exception. She suggested in a tweet that women who "don't dress like a whore" are less likely to become rape victims.

Her tweet, posted after a series of sexual assaults in Toronto and meant as advice for fellow women, sparked online outrage. Her own family scolded Ford for the tweet, and one of the rape victims, Toronto comedian Alice Moran, publicly challenged Ford's logic in an open letter posted to Facebook.

Mocking a man's religion is a usually a no-no in politics these days, but that didn't stop a man with ties to President Obama's campaign from tweeting bigoted wisecracks about the Mormon faith of Mitt Romney, Obama's Republican rival. Samuel Cook III targeted Romney on Twitter after the candidate posted a tribute to astronaut Neil Armstrong, who died last week.

"Bad idea trying to have nuanced conversation on highly charged issue on [Twitter]," Politico reporter Dave Catanese tweeted Monday. "Did not intend to take a side. Lesson learned." It's too bad he didn't learn the lesson from former colleague Joseph Williams, who lost his job over opinionated tweets two months ago.

Catanese made himself a target for Twitter hostility on Sunday when he published a series of tweets defending Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin of Missouri, who earlier that day had earned scorn for a comment about "legitimate rape" while discussing abortion policy. Politico removed Catanese from the Akin story.

Fines for foolish tweets are no longer just an American sports tradition. Our former colonial rulers across the pond are playing the game, too.

The English Football Association this week slapped soccer player Rio Ferdinand with a $71,000 penalty for retweeting a racist phrase about rival player Ashley Cole. That fine came weeks after the European Tour fined English golfer James Morrison for angry tweets about the handling of a golf tournament.

Daddy dearest Michael Dell, who will spend nearly $3 million this year on security for his family, apparently didn't care much for some of daughter Alexa Dell's informative tweets. Word has it that the billionaire computer executive had his daughter's Twitter account killed for security reasons.

Only Twitter and the New York Police Department know the "Anonymous Celebrity" who tweeted under the pseudonym @obamasmistress, but apparently the tweeter wasn't as threatening in person as he or she pretended to be online.