Movie critic Roger Ebert had his Facebook page suspended after a comment he made about the death of “Jackass” star Ryan Dunn sparked an angry outcry, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Ebert responded to the suspension on Twitter, saying, "Facebook has removed my page in response, apparently, to malicious complaints from one or two jerks.”
Ebert also tweeted: "Facebook! My page is harmless and an asset to you. Why did you remove it in response to anonymous jerks? Makes you look bad."
Facebook initially commented on the suspension: "Among other things, pages that are hateful, threatening or obscene are not allowed."
Facebook reinstated Ebert’s page after about an hour.
The Ebert tweet that sparked the controversy came shortly after news surfaced that Dunn, 34, had died early Monday in a fiery traffic accident just hours after he tweeted a photo of himself drinking. Ebert’s tweet: "Friends don’t let Jackasses drink and drive."
Many fans of Dunn apparently were offended by the tweet, and let Ebert know about it.
Ebert commented on the tweet when he later expressed his sympathy to Dunn’s family on Ebert’s blog: “To begin with, I offer my sympathy to Ryan Dunn’s family and friends, and to those of Zachary Hartwell, who also died in the crash. I mean that sincerely. It is tragic to lose a loved one. I also regret that my tweet about the event was considered cruel. It was not intended as cruel. It was intended as true.”
Here comes the censorship.
While a senseless loss of life is a loss nonetheless and I’m sorry for this one, I can’t help but marvel at how passionately people talk about a celebrity or personality – someone they don’t know and have never met – as if they were a blood relative! The comments on Ebert’s FB page are far more vile than what he said.
Granted, maybe he should have simply said “friends don’t let friends drive drunk” which is true however he made the mistake of adding the word “Jackasses”. Of course Mr. Dunn made a very nice living off of being called a Jackass and being part of a troupe that went proudly for YEARS by the moniker of jackass and had fans who joke about being jackasses. They are proud of that label so WTF are these morons so upset for now? Because maybe he wasn’t drunk? Because it was too soon to comment? I’ll give them that. However, these jackasses LIVE to be the first one to post comments or tweet whatever crank pops into their heads. I’d bet that if you did a history run on their computers you would find any number of hateful comments about personalities who died or faced some sort of devastating event. Especially if the person was old or fat or not cool! Calling Ebert a “c*#% is so over the top. Dudes, c’mon! Oh and btw – they’re acting like Beiber fans with their fanaticisms. I’m just sayin’.
Ebert is probably loving all the attention.
Ebert capitalized “Jackass” meaning his comment played on this specific person who was part of Jackass movies & TV. It reminds us of the warning that “friends don’t let friends drive drunk.” The guy ended up killing himself and a friend after sending pix of himself drinking. A simple tweet was taken out of context by people who didn’t stop to notice he used a capital “J”. Sorry for their families, but it still makes a case of a person committing a terrible mistake that cost two lives. Maybe the double meaning should stand.