Aaron Calvin Bio, Wiki
Aaron Calvin is a writer, journalist, and editor working for The Des Moines Register. On Tuesday, September 24th, He wrote a piece for the publication he works for that exposed the viral sensation and Iowa State University student Carson King for two old racist tweets after King raised over $1 million for charity. In a shocking turn of events, Twitter users dug into his tweets and found some equally offensive content. According to his LinkedIn, Aaron Calvin has been a journalist and reporter for the past 5 years since graduating from Hofstra University in 2013.
Aaron Calvin Background
According to his portfolio on his website, Calvin started his career as a Staff Writer/ Social Media Coordinator for Buzzfeed. He includes articles such as “This Comic Perfectly Explains What White Privilege Is” and “Which “Friday Night Lights” Character Are You?”
He has interviewed authors like Claire Vaye Watkins and Padgett Powell for Vice and has also been published by Men’s Journal, Digg, and Catapult.
Aaron Calvin & Carson King
Carson King, a student at Iowa State University went viral after he was seen on ESPN’s College Gameday at a Hawkeyes football game holding a sign that read “BUSCH LIGHT SUPPLY NEEDS REPLINISHED” along with his Venmo name.
His plan worked better than he could have ever imagined as within 30 minutes his Venmo account reached $400. Realizing that he might raise much more money than he intended, he said he would donate the money to University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital.
Once word got out that he was donating the money to charity, the donations started pouring in. By Sunday morning September 22nd, King had raised over $1 million for the charity. He said he would subtract the cost of one case of Busch beer and donate the rest to charity.
Busch Beer got involved and said they would donate a year worth of beer to King. They also put his face on the side of the cans. “Hey @CarsonKing2, we said we’d send you a year’s worth of Busch Light, but first we had to make sure the cans were fit for a King.” the Busch Beer account tweeted, “Let us know where to send the truck. #IowaLegend pic.twitter.com/czGBuXRE92”
King’s momentum came to a screeching halt when Des Moines Register reporter Aaron Calvin found two offensive tweets King posted when he was 16. The tweets reportedly compared black mothers to gorillas and made light of the Holocaust. According to King, he and his friends were quoting the TV show Tosh.0.
In a statement posted to his Twitter, King said he was “embarrassed” and “stunned” on what he said said 8 years ago.
“Thankfully, high school kids grow up and hopefully become responsible and caring adults,” King wrote. “I think my feelings are better summed up by a post from just 3 years ago: Until we as a people learn that racism and hate are learned behaviors, we won’t get rid of it. Tolerance towards others is the first step.”
Busch Beer pulled their offer of free beer for a year following the incident.
Aaron Calvin Offensive Tweets
In a shocking turn of events, Twitter users dug into his tweets and found some equally offensive content. Aaron Calvin Said the N-Word Among Other Offensive Things on Twitter
“too many of these n*****s bitches made nowadays, don’t pardon my french” read one tweet. He also said the word again quoting a Kanye West song. “They’d rather give me the ‘n**** please award’. I’ll just take the ‘I got a lot of cheese award’ Tell it like it is Kanye.”
He also tweeted “I just got hit on by Tori Amos’ makeup guy. Never talk to strange gay men.” and “Fuck the NYPD” in response to a tweet about rapper Desiigner being arrested.
Since he wants to dig past social media posts, let’s do the same thing about him and all the offensive stuff this Des Moines Register editor Aaron Calvin has posted in the past pic.twitter.com/VEBiq7ShzK
— Austin S (@Austin_712) September 25, 2019
Des Moines Register Statement
After significant backlash directed to Calvin on social media, the Des Moines Register tweeted a lengthy statement that described their decision-making process in publishing the tweets from Carson King.
The statement reads that Aaron Calvin was “assigned to interview King for a profile” and during a routine background check discovered the “two racist jokes” King had posted on Twitter in 2012. Calvin contacted King who “expressed deep regret”.
A statement from our editor: pic.twitter.com/ZH9AhcrYbg
— Des Moines Register (@DMRegister) September 25, 2019
The editors said they debated whether or not to add the information due to King expressing remorse and the incident occurring when he was a teenager. They eventually decided to publish the information but at “as a few paragraphs towards the bottom of the article”
The tweet was littered with screenshots of Calvin’s prior offensive tweets.
Aaron Calvin Career at Des Moines Register
According to his LinkedIn profile, he became a reporter for the paper in February 2019, less than 7 months ago. Depending on the result of The Des Moines Register’s investigation into Calvin, his tenure at the paper may be a short one. In his time as a reporter, he’s covered a variety of subjects including breaking news, food, sports, and crime.
Aaron Calvin Twitter, Instagram, Facebook
The floodgates opened and Twitter users piled on to Calvin after his old tweets were discovered, for what they saw as blatant hypocrisy. Thousands of tweets flooded in as users discovered more and more troubling content. Calvin eventually switched his account to private in order to stop people going through it with a fine-toothed comb.
Reporter Stephen Miller had a different take on the whole ordeal.
The problem isn't Aaron Calvin. The problem is other journalists who join in a bukkake cancel circle and tolerate this shit.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 25, 2019
Calvin also set his Instagram account to private but not his Facebook page. The old posts on his Facebook page are now littered with comments from people criticizing him and posting screenshots of his old tweets.
The @DMRegister’s Aaron Calvin may have locked his Twitter, but his Facebook is still public and this cover photo says a lot about the type of person he is and what he thinks of many people in Iowa. pic.twitter.com/Rqx6o5JrRq
— Cameron Cawthorne (@Cam_Cawthorne) September 25, 2019
