Roger Ebert’s Tweet Sparks Outrage, a Politician Asks Social Media for Advice, and a Fake Newspaper Wants a Pulitzer

After Ryan Dunn, a star on MTV's "Jackass" stunt show, died in a car crash Monday, film critic Roger Ebert tweeted, "Friends don't let jackasses drink and drive." Ebert was referring to the fact that Dunn had tweeted a photo of himself drinking with friends before getting into his car (the picture is no longer on Twitter, but can be seen on TMZ). Dunn reportedly had three beers and three shots before getting behind the wheel. Many are outraged about Ebert's Twitter comment, including some of his nearly 500,000 Twitter followers, fans of Dunn, and a handful of celebrities like

blogger Perez Hilton. On his blog, Hilton wrote, "We certainly agree that driving after drinking is wrong, we think there's no reason-- especially RIGHT NOW-- that anyone should be pointing fingers or poking fun at a truly tragic situation. Everyone makes mistake, and this is somebody's son. Too soon, Roger." Despite calls for an apology, Ebert has yet to do so. Ebert pointed out that most of the comments on Hilton's blog sided with Ebert's view. But the controversy isn't just on Twitter and in blogs. Tuesday morning, the film critic said that his Facebook page was removed by Facebook because of complaints. He 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." His page is back up.

The state of New York is reportedly one vote shy of legalizing gay marriage. Ahead of the big vote, state Sen. Greg Ball turned to social media for advice. He asked his Twitter followers and Facebook fans, "Opening up the discussion! So, if you were me, how would you vote on gay marriage? Yes or No?" An overwhelming majority urged the senator to vote "yes." Ball says "yes" responses outnumbered "no" responses "a thousand to one." Ball noted that most of the pro-gay marriage comments were from people who live outside his district. By contrast, Ball says 60 percent of the calls and emails his office receives are from gay marriage opponents.

The Onion, a paper that posts fake stories for social commentary, wants the highest award in American journalism: a Pulitzer Prize! The organization has submitted for Pulitzers in the past, in areas ranging from commentary to public service, but has come up empty-handed. It's now launching a massive social media campaign to try to get the job done. It's posted a petition online where it hopes to get 200 million signatures (no big deal, that's just about two-thirds of the U.S. population). So far it has a little more than a thousand signatures. The Onion even created a site called, "Americans For Fairness In Awarding Journalism Prizes," which includes YouTube testimonials from the likes of Tom Hanks, Arianna Huffington, and Mario Batali. If the Onion's social media campaign pays off, it won't be the first time fake news wins a serious journalism award. In 2008, Comedy Central's "Colbert Report" won a Peabody for Journalistic Excellence.

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