Will corporations never learn that knee-jerk reactions to online outrage are almost always factually vapid? Apparently not.
Fast food chain Chipotle recently fired a manager after a viral video showed her refusing service to a group of young, black men. She also suggested the group of men did not have money to pay for their food, saying the last several times they frequented the restaurant, they didn’t have money to pay.
“You gotta pay because you’ve never had money when you come in here. We’re not gonna make food unless you guys actually have money,” she said.
The video, taken by Masud Ali, one of the men refused service, instantly went viral. Chipotle acted swiftly, firing the manager.
First, the video:
It took a whole five minutes to unearth tweets, made by Ali himself, discussing previous dine and dashes.
Predictably, Ali made the ordeal about race, conveniently neglecting the fact that he has a criminal record which includes convictions for, wait for it… theft!
Of course, news outlets jumped on the Racist™ bandwagon without bothering to research whether or not the manager’s claims were true.
More from The Daily Caller:
Ali later told the Star Tribune “the way [the manager] said it was racist. She asked for proof of income as if I’m getting a loan.”He also said he didn’t appreciate being called a thief.But Ali was sentenced to two years of probation in January for theft over $1,000, according to Minnesota court records. All but two days of a one-year jail term was suspended.He also pleaded guilty to theft in November 2015 and received a year of probation, court records show.Meanwhile, many people posted screenshots of Ali’s previous behavior in replies to his tweets. Yet newspapers across the country published stories without these facts.The Miami Herald, for example, ran a story headlined “Chipotle manager fired after employees refuse to serve five black men.”The story has since been updated to include Ali’s background and the reporter, Monique Madan, told TheDCNF they were not aware of the tweets and would have included them in the story.When Good Morning America producer Lauren Dozier asked Ali for rights to run the video on television, she received more than 200 replies from people, many saying things like “Don’t do it,” “Do your research,” or screenshots of Ali’s past tweets bragging of schemes to “eat for free.”She responded to Ali “Thanks,” but did not appear to respond to any of these warnings.
Chipotle stepped in it. Big time.
What did they know and when did they know it?!
Sunday, Chipotle offered the manager her job back:
But really though, how many?
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