Late last week the internets went all abuzz with reports of Scott Baio being accused of racism (and death threats were even made by one Twitter user), because of a photo he'd posted of Michelle Obama. Baio defended the photo as a "joke", and some of the people who viewed the photo don't understood how it could be considered racist. This will give you a better idea of why many people consider it racist.
There is much to report on the antics of Baio's Twitter life, but for now we'll focus on the accusations of racism.
Baio claims his political status as a conservative, and although politics aren't the main issue here I'm including a few of his postings which are from a conservative's perspective. They provide a glimpse into Baio's disdain for President Obama - some of which might be because Obama isn't a conservative, but that doesn't explain why he lumps Obama with Michael Vick as a "loser". (Seriously, Obama and Vick only have one obvious thing in common). We ask that you take all of these screencaps as a whole into consideration.
He currently uses the Twitter/Twitpic account @RealScottBaio. His first account was @thescottbaio, which is still active as of this posting. These screencaps are from both accounts.
(Click on photos for larger view. Baio's comments and the fine print on some of the photos provide the all-important context.)
There is much to report on the antics of Baio's Twitter life, but for now we'll focus on the accusations of racism.
Baio claims his political status as a conservative, and although politics aren't the main issue here I'm including a few of his postings which are from a conservative's perspective. They provide a glimpse into Baio's disdain for President Obama - some of which might be because Obama isn't a conservative, but that doesn't explain why he lumps Obama with Michael Vick as a "loser". (Seriously, Obama and Vick only have one obvious thing in common). We ask that you take all of these screencaps as a whole into consideration.
He currently uses the Twitter/Twitpic account @RealScottBaio. His first account was @thescottbaio, which is still active as of this posting. These screencaps are from both accounts.
(Click on photos for larger view. Baio's comments and the fine print on some of the photos provide the all-important context.)
Here is the pic that started it all last week:
Here are some pics from his Twitpic accounts:
Here are screencaps of a few of his tweets. This exchange from Oct 2009 brought him to the (very negative) attention of quite a few people:
It's obviously a very bad thing to have death threats made against you, but the reality is that it isn't uncommon online when people dive deeply into passionate topics. In fact, some of Scott Baio's fans made death threats against at least one liberal whom had angered Scott (and therefore his fans) a few months ago. Those threats included talk of the taste of a gun barrel and the quickness with which a person's throat can be slit and the perpetrator being back safely in their bed before the victim knew what hit him. Twitter completely ignored the target of those threats when he reported them.Here is the screencap of the threats made towards Scott Baio. The account was quickly removed from Twitter when this was reported.
Here are a few links to blogs by people either with 'personal' experience with his Twitter life, or have just kept a watch on what's been going on with his account since October:
ooh la, la lindsey
Baiowatch
Totally the Bomb
There are plenty of blogs to be found online simply by searching "Scott Baio death threats", but most of them are hearing things 4th- or 5th- or 6th-hand, and many are simply regurgitating the others. Here are some links anyway:
Huffington Post
zap2it
Daily Mail (UK)
Fox News
