Roger Ebert Tweets Chastisement After Drunk Driving Death

[Wonderflonium]

Actually, when Dunn decided to get drunk and drive on public roads, it became everybody's business.

Except he is now dead. He has suffered the ultimate punishment for his own stupidity. And to make it worse he took someone else with him.

That still doesn't put Ebert in the right here.

He killed 2 people and endangered heaven knows how many more. He was stupid and reckless, and frankly, so were the people who let him get behind the wheel. Those are the people at whom the tweet was directed.

[Bibliophile]

In regards to celebrity, I have no idea who Ebert is. He's famous in America, but not really outside of it. My FB page lit up when Ryan Dunn died.

I knew who Ebert was since I was little - I'm 35 now (weren't those 2 Muppet characters sort of fashioned after Siskal & Ebert?).  If you said "Ryan Dunn" without saying he was some guy in the Donkey movies, I would have no idea who you were talking about... Even then, I still wouldn't recognize him in public.

Did anyone see the report on how Dunn's friends predicted his death by vehicle?  I guess he's been in numerous wrecks before & Bam's mom said something along the lines of he'll never learn the lesson.  The video wouldn't work when I tried to view it...

[Lauren]

He killed 2 people and endangered heaven knows how many more. He was stupid and reckless, and frankly, so were the people who let him get behind the wheel. Those are the people at whom the tweet was directed.

That's the point though. It wasn't Ebert's place to direct anything towards them.

His Tweet has also stopped a lot of the discussion that COULD have gone on following the release of the info that yes, he was drunk. Instead of talking about friends letting people drive after drinking, or the stupidity of drink driving, we're talking about a stupid Tweet that should never have been made.

[Wonderflonium]

He killed 2 people and endangered heaven knows how many more. He was stupid and reckless, and frankly, so were the people who let him get behind the wheel. Those are the people at whom the tweet was directed.

That's the point though. It wasn't Ebert's place to direct anything towards them.

His Tweet has also stopped a lot of the discussion that COULD have gone on following the release of the info that yes, he was drunk. Instead of talking about friends letting people drive after drinking, or the stupidity of drink driving, we're talking about a stupid Tweet that should never have been made.

In your opinion. A lot of us wholeheartedly agree with him. He didn't say anything that wasn't true, and it's his right to say those things.

In regards to celebrity, I have no idea who Ebert is. He's famous in America, but not really outside of it. My FB page lit up when Ryan Dunn died.

I knew who Ebert was since I was little - I'm 35 now (weren't those 2 Muppet characters sort of fashioned after Siskal & Ebert?).  If you said "Ryan Dunn" without saying he was some guy in the Donkey movies, I would have no idea who you were talking about... Even then, I still wouldn't recognize him in public.

Ditto.

[Lauren]

In your opinion. A lot of us wholeheartedly agree with him. He didn't say anything that wasn't true, and it's his right to say those things.

Yes he has the right. That doesn't mean he should.

It also doesn't stop him from getting criticism.

To the people who think Ebert was right, would you make a statement about a very recently deceased acquaintance with the full knowledge that there's a very good chance it would get back to family and friends?

[Bibliophile]

To the people who think Ebert was right, would you make a statement about a very recently deceased acquaintance with the full knowledge that there's a very good chance it would get back to family and friends?

Yes.  If the person has repeatedly shown bad driving judgement, has made the decision to drink & drive, and has killed another person, I would have no issues making my personal feelings on that known.   You do not drink and drive.  Period. 

[Wonderflonium]

The comment wasn't about the deceased, it was about the people who let him get behind the wheel.

I might or might not say something. I don't know until I'm in that situation. What I do know is that although I feel sorry for the family and friends, I have little to no sympathy for someone who was that reckless for that long.

[PeasNCues]

No one has really explained why the comment is offensive? Why it was too soon? Can people spell out to me what bothers them about it? Thanks in advance!

The comment was offensive because it wasn't Ebert's place and it was too soon. It was too soon because it was barely even a day after he died. (I don't think it was even a day!)

Thanks for your response.

What makes it "not his place" though? I figured a public figure died in a public way and it's really anyone's place to comment.

As for too soon... I'm not sure about that. News spreads like wildfire and his comment was fairly generic, IMO.

[Wonderflonium]

I figured a public figure died in a public way and it's really anyone's place to comment.

And in a public place, no less. There was also the very real chance that he could have taken out several more members of the public.

[iridaceae]

He killed 2 people and endangered heaven knows how many more. He was stupid and reckless, and frankly, so were the people who let him get behind the wheel. Those are the people at whom the tweet was directed.

That's the point though. It wasn't Ebert's place to direct anything towards them.

So whose place would it have been? The State Police's?  The poor Emergency Personnel who had to deal with that twisted charred metal and the remains? The coroner's? Are they all right or would they, too, be lambasted for sullying the extremely tarnished reputations of this habitual lawbreaker? 

After a certain point, when you have broken the law enough times, you don't get to play the "poor guy" card any more, even if you are dead. Am I being harsh? Yes. Have I lost anyone to drunk driving? No. But I used to work with a bunch of people who considered DUIs to be badges of honor and congratulated each other on them. I suspect, if they are still alive they, too, are busy saying "how can you be so meeeeeeeean?"

[Twik]

What exactly was the insult in the Tweet to Dunn? That he was driving while inebriated? Yes, he was. It seems pretty hypocritical to expect everyone to deny that. And the Donkey reference? Well, it's the name of the series that made Dunn rich, and famous. (And which glorified acting irresponsibly and destructively.)

If anyone was "called out" by that Tweet, it was other people he was partying with, who didn't stop him from driving. And if the Tweet makes a single person think, "Hmm, my buddy is pretty smashed, maybe I should take his keys," it's worth it.

I think this is a pretty clear case of "cuts too close to home". Mr. Dunn's friends *know* he was an irresponsible fool, and all their pain is because of his bad decisions. But they can't admit that to themselves, so they lash out at a third party. It's so much easier than to face the fact that their friend was the one entirely to blame. "How dare you say my saintly dead friend was anything but the victim of cruel and capricious Fate? Just because he *was* acting irresponsibly is no reason to imply that he was acting irresponsibly."

[gramma dishes]

Exhibit A:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_the_Valley_of_the_Dolls

Quote from your source (above):  Ebert has said that Beyond the Valley of the Dolls seemed "like a movie that got made by accident when the lunatics took over the asylum."

I don't know if you just disagree with his opinion of this particular film or not,  but I see no connection whatsoever between his evaluation of this one given movie and the words he tweeted about the J@cka$$ person.

[jibby]

To the people who think Ebert was right, would you make a statement about a very recently deceased acquaintance with the full knowledge that there's a very good chance it would get back to family and friends?

In the same spirit as Ebert's comment? Yes, bc if a loved one died in a drunk driving accident, I would be furious with whoever let the driver take the wheel, regardless of whether or not my loved one *was* the drunk driver.  The comment is aimed at the survivors, not the deceased.

[WillyNilly]

In regards to celebrity, I have no idea who Ebert is. He's famous in America, but not really outside of it. My FB page lit up when Ryan Dunn died.

I knew who Ebert was since I was little - I'm 35 now (weren't those 2 Muppet characters sort of fashioned after Siskal & Ebert?).  If you said "Ryan Dunn" without saying he was some guy in the Donkey movies, I would have no idea who you were talking about... Even then, I still wouldn't recognize him in public.

Quite honestly?  I too am 35 and I knew who Ebert was since, well as long as I can remember.  I had no idea who "Ryan Dunn" was when FB started exploding with "RIP" status'... and I've seen all the Jacka$$ movies, and in fact was just watching the show (repeats) over the weekend.

And further, when I did realize who Ryan Dunn was, and how he died my first reaction?  The very first word out of my mouth?  "Jacka$$..."  as I wasn't meaning the show - I was meaning the guy.  Because it is a JA thing to do.

I'll come out and say it - I have driven drunk.  I've done it.  I own it.  And I know I was wrong.  And very lucky in that I never got into any accidents.  And I don't do it anymore, ever (not that I did it with any regularity).  It took one friend getting pulled over and getting a DUI and the legal hassle of loosing her license, being banned from bars for a few months, etc, and we all cleaned up our act.  We all realized the cost of a cab - heck the cost of 8 roundtrip cabs (so one r/t a weekend per month) - was not even a fraction of the cost of drunk driving, even if no one is harmed.

Ryan Dunn was famous not just for doing crazy stunts, watch YouTube there are billions of idiots out there, Ryan Dunn was famous for getting paid to do crazy stunts.  He had more then enough opportunity to hire a cab, or a driver, or to limit his drinking to hotels, etc.  He made a conscientious choice to not do so.  And his friends made that choice too.  And now, due to all their choices two of them are dead.

If even one of his friends at the bar that night had made a stand, had spoken up loudly enough, "hey jacka$$ call a cab!" Ebert would not have even had the opportunity to make the tweet to begin with.  But none did.

But you know what?  I bet at least once, if not about 100,000x times going forward, now, someone at the end of a night will drunkenly call out to their friends "Hey jacka$$, call a cab!" across a bar and yeah the bar might erupt in dispute about Ebert, or just discussion of Dunn, but a cab will get called and lives will be spared.

[Winterlight]

Don't get all bent out of shape because someone came forward to say what needs to be said at times like this.

The truth isn't always pretty, folks.

Really? I don't feel I have been bent out of shape about this. I stated my opinion, clear and simple. Absolutely, Ryan Dunn was in the wrong.  But isn't etiquette about getting your point across politely, and not being a jerk to people, even if they deserve it. I don't think the family would have liked seeing that tweet, and I think he jumped on the opportunity.  There are better ways to get your point across, and frankly I think his method was insensitive at best, and self serving at the worst.

Seconded.