The Twitter Saga: it never ends.

(If you need more info about the opinions swirling about this Dan Ellis Twitter mess, read this and this.)

So, last night I wrote about Dan Ellis quitting Twitter. As soon as I was done, I went to bed, since it was late and I wanted to be up early. When I checked my Twitter feed around mid-morning, I was kind of surprised by what I found.

"So let me get this straight. 

Since I went to bed last night, I've become a villain for causing Dan Ellis to quit Twitter."

That's the only thing I could say about this situation: there was a sudden backlash overnight against everyone who apparently drove Dan Ellis away. I could go on and on about this situation, as many people have. Instead of using social media as a way to get closer to his fans, Ellis alienated some of them by talking about class differences (poor little rich boy). The fans then used the same medium to voice their own opinions, but the fact that Ellis is one person, and the people who reacted probably numbered in the thousands, made it seem like bullying.

Thus, many mainstream journalists took Ellis' side. They've probably met him in real life, and I'm sure he's a nice person, but he clearly lacks the tact to deal with the situation he got himself into, and that's the problem. After Ellis decided to quit Twitter, he became a victim. A bunch of people who simply reacted when provoked committed the crime of shaking a professional athlete's confidence and it was out of line.

But it's not out of line, for some reason, that an entire city ganged up on Carey Price at every opportune moment. The mainstream media agreed with (and/or influenced) the masses in that situation, so there was nothing wrong with it. I'm not saying that tweeters didn't affect Ellis, but if he couldn't handle the reactions he elicited, all he had to do was avoid reading them. It's a little bit harder when you're getting booed at work, or being stopped on the street just to be told that you suck, or having to defend yourself to a horde of reporters. The mainstream media finally saw things Carey Price's way when he was booed for being named third star of the game, late in the season. No one cared when he said that the only newspaper he can't read about himself in is USA Today, and no one even tried to debate Jack Todd after Todd wrote multiple columns about the exact same thing. It's a double standard.

Fans shouldn't turn their backs on players. I took part in the roasting of Dan Ellis, but it was all in fun. I didn't think I'd suddenly be the bad guy. But I still think that players - and journalists - shouldn't turn their backs on fans.

And with that said, I promise to be a bit less serious. I know it's been a heavy couple of blog posts!