Twitter War
Fort Worth City Council member rains down on Weather Channel in epic tweet storm
Fort Worth City Council member Joel Burns didn't plan on starting a Twitter war with a cable network on May 12; it just happened. Burns fired off a tweet to the Weather Channel at 7:05 Monday morning, threatening to delete the app if it didn't stop using pictures of Dallas landmarks on Fort Worth forecasts.
Perhaps it was Burns' use of ALL CAPS in his early morning missive that rankled the Weather Channel, but there's still no excuse for the company's snarky response. Burns, an openly gay council member who is best known for his 2010 "It Gets Better" speech, didn't take kindly to the Weather Channel making light of his anti-bullying efforts.
An epic Twitter war unfolded:
Dear @weatherchannel I SWEAR I'm deleting your aggravating app if you don't STOP SHOWING DALLAS pics for Fort Worth pic.twitter.com/Rx36gZoI2K
— Councilm. Joel Burns (@JoelBurns) May 12, 2014@JoelBurns Sorry to see you go. Good luck on ending bullying.
— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) May 12, 2014How to be a dick on social media, cable network-style. RT @weatherchannel: @JoelBurns Sorry to see you go. Good luck on ending bullying.
— Brian Winkeler (@brianwinkeler) May 12, 2014@weatherchannel: @JoelBurns Sorry to see you go. Good luck on ending bullying.- He's not the only one leaving! FYI, that's a bully response!
— Dennis Yslas (@dennisactor) May 12, 2014I don't have the @weatherchannel app. But I might downloaded just to delete it for dissing #fortworth and @JoelBurns.
— John Moritz (@JohnnieMo) May 12, 2014Today's lesson on how to screw up your online reputation brought to you by @weatherchannel in response to @joelburns simple ask
— Jack Hirschfield (@hirschfieldj) May 12, 2014Hey @weatherchannel. No wonder you're losing viewers. Response to @JoelBurns was unprofessional.
— Sarah Huffstetler (@shuffstetler) May 12, 2014I guess now that Don Sterling is out of a job, he'll take anything, including social-media internships w/ @weatherchannel @JoelBurns
— Joel (@Captain1986) May 12, 2014@weatherchannel Spoke too soon. After seeing your reply to @joelburns, I too am deleting the app & considering dumping shs of @nbcuniversal
— Huey Nym (@hueynym) May 12, 2014.@weatherchannel I'm with our councilman @JoelBurns on this one. #FortWorth https://t.co/cIw7GkDlBQ pic.twitter.com/zWLJESxv9r
— Drew Martin (@TCU_Drew) May 12, 2014.@JoelBurns we apologize for our reply this morning. Our response was inappropriate & we're taking steps to ensure it doesn't happen again.
— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) May 12, 2014