Tracy Morgan Apology for "Homophobic Rant"

Comedian Tracy Morgan was tried, convicted and apologized-all within what seemed to be several hours on the internet today.If you haven't heard, Morgan apparently went on what is being called a gay bash rant during a performance in Nashville last weekend. That led to Morgan being considered "homophobic," especially in the gay community.

The story surfaced thanks to a very vivid post by a man on Facebook. The man, Kevin Rogers, was in attendance the night of the concert and he described the performance from Morgan as anti-gay. Rogers highlighted some of the more controversial moments of the show in his own post-Morgan concert rant. You can view the Rogers recap here(although I must warn it contains some rated R dialog.) Rogers is certain to get more than his 24 hours of fame from this entire incident because of the controversial nature of what has transpired since his post.

Morgan then became the subject of a whirlwind of controversy in the past 12 hours. His homophobic rant, as it has been called, circulated on the internet in what seemed to be a matter of minutes this morning. The only evidence of the so called homophobic rant originated from a fan who admittedly had enough. It obviously happened-but perhaps the shocker is how the information of what transpired was disseminated. From a guy on Facebook. Not a reporter or blogger. A comment posted on Facebook.

Before very long at all, Morgan seemed to be the "most hated" and "most homophobic" person in America. It's a prime example of how someone can be tried by public opinion on the internet. It didn't take very long for Morgan to become the subject of blogs and tweets everywhere. The damage was so fast and furious that Morgan issued an apology before the end of the day. You can view the apology on EW here. Amazing! Tried, convicted and apologized on the world wide web in less than 24 hours. Who needs a court system when the folks on the internet place guilt and blame on individuals and collectively demands an apology-and gets it within 24 hours?

Sure, the performance took place on June 3rd Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. It's amazing it took that long before the subject actually was propelled into the public eye by a random guy on Facebook. But once the story hit, it took off so quickly and evolved faster than an episode of Law & Order.

So what does this say about the power of the world wide web? The power is incredible. If you are a celebrity or pro athlete, you have to be more than particularly careful these days with word selection. What Morgan apparently said was extremist and completely uncalled for-but isn't it amazing how quickly he was turned from that "funny guy from Saturday night live" into public enemy number one?

The power of Twitter, Facebook and other social media is something celebrities need to be very conscious of these days.
Some have found success in manipulating social media like the Kardashians of the world. But others have failed to recognize that even the smallest things can make huge waves. I'm not downplaying what Tracy Morgan said during this "homophobic rant." He was out of line and he obviously knew he was when he quickly apologized following the drama this morning. Maybe it took the circus and frenzy to drive the point into his head that he went to far. Maybe he felt his job was on the line. Maybe he was actually sad he pushed such an incredibly warm hot button.

I find it more than simply amazing that a person can be tried within the public perception, found guilty and then almost forced to apologize or face career suicide within such short span of time. That's kind of the internet world we live in these days. This might actually be one example where the web did its share of good-not only right the wrong from what he said but perhaps by maybe saving the career of Morgan in the process. The jury is still out on whether or not NBC would let him go from "30 Rock" or "Saturday Night Live." There's always a possibility that he could get fired from both by NBC. The damage control might not have started soon enough for Morgan to survive. But one thing is for sure-words mean a lot more on the net and are feverishly passed around when not used wisely these days. Speaker and writer beware-the world is watching and posting.