Ryan Seacrest has over 8 million followers on Twitter.
Yeah…I don’t get it either.
But the fact is…he’s a popular dude and he’s got a serious following.
But here’s the deal.
With that following comes a certain RESPONSIBILITY not to say something stupid, insulting or dangerous.
Why?
Because people listen to you. What you say is important to them. You are filling a void in people’s lives.
So let’s say I’m not Gluten Dude for a brief moment and I’m just an average Joe living in Anywhere, USA and I’m a big American Idol fan. So naturally, I follow Ryan Seacrest on Twitter.
I’ve heard of gluten but don’t know much about it. From what I can tell from the tabloids I read, it’s just the latest fad diet.
Then I see Ryan Seacrest tweet the following:
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha…running from the gluten man. Man…I LOVE Ryan Seacrest…he’s just so…it!!”
And then one hour later, I see the following tweet from my main man Ryan:
“That is freakin’ awesome Ryan!! People who go gluten-free must be idiots. What a stupid fad diet anyway. Thanks Ryan for keeping it real!
Now multiply the average Joe by a million and you see my problem with this.
Many of those million will be your chef, waiter or waitress the next time you dine out.
They’ll be your host the next time you’re at someone’s house for a dinner party.
They think gluten is funny.
They don’t know it can be a killer.
It doesn’t matter that the celiac community jumped down his throat on Twitter (our community rocks as usual!). The masses will just think we’re being whiners.
So c’mon Ryan…take some responsibility…please.
Go back on Twitter and apologize. I’ll even write it out for you. All you need to do is copy and paste the following:
“Sorry folks. I messed up about the whole gluten thing. I wasn’t aware of the seriousness of celiac disease. Gluten is not a joke.”
Do it now Ryan.
Otherwise, I’ll have to pull a Kardashian on you.
Most excellent!
Excellent. He’s such an idiot. Now, I want to go yell at him…I hope he somehow reads your blog…perfect.
Something tells me he’s not a Gluten Dude follower…
Yeah, probably not but hopefully the word will get out. haha!
Couldn’t have said it better myself. We don’t whine, we rant!
Boy, I’m loving reading you posts! Well said! Actually, I agree with Stacy – perfect!
Gluten Dude,
I often wonder can we start a petition on petition.org requesting the general population of ‘Celebrities’ [including TV stars, Radio hosts, Movie stars, politicians, – – pretty much anyone who’s voice is heard louder than ours and isn’t as educated/informed about Celiac disease as any of us folks in the Celiac community] to either speak the truth or forever hold their peace?!? And when they do say something stupid, to apologize and mean it.
Or start something similar?
I often tweet Ellen about the seriousness of celiac disease – seeing how she’s usually advocating healthy lifestyle. One of these days, she’ll take notice. Until then, I’ll keep trying.
Cheers!
Hk
I’m not sure how effective those petitions are. Let’s just keep advocating the best we can.
Well said Gluten Dude! He will need a Kardashian done on him sooner or later and I can’t wait to read it! 🙂
I like that “Kardashian” is becoming a verb. Kinda like “Googling” something 🙂
I saw this and my head almost exploded. The guy is a complete twat. I must be naive or something but I still just can’t fathom how these people don’t take the responsibility that comes with fame seriously. I would never actually wish harm on someone, but dreamt that he got hit but a bagel truck. Such sweet, ironic justice. Only in our dreams though… I think these morons just can’t help being stupid.
Unfortunately, Britain has a few idiots as well. Check this out…a chef was invited onto Saturday Kitchen to cook a gluten free meal and talk to the nation about coeliac disease. This is shown on BBC1 (channel 1 on everyone’s telly) – free to view if you have a TV licence – the channel provides a mix of programmes for the whole family – well trusted by millions. The only problem with live TV is that you can’t edit out stuff like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvDVgeuFCys
Holy moly Kate! I cannot believe what an idiot he is. That just may deserve its own blog post.
I, along with a fair few of my fellow CUK members and CUK too, complained to Aunty Beeb. We all got the same standardised response (i.e. fobbed off). And as far as I know, they haven’t put on someone sensible since to put the record straight.
(We’ve got Dr Chris Steele – a TV doctor who got diagnosed with CD, or Phil Vickery – a famous chef who wrote a fantastic book on gluten-free baking; so I think it should be possible.)
Yes! The Saturday Kitchen madness was pretty ridiculous and there was a big uproar amongst the UK coeliac community when it happened (April, 2011). Many of us complained to the BBC and you can read their reply here. They basically apologise for what he said on the show…
http://glutenfreetraveller.com/gluten-free-in-the-media/saturday-kitchen-chef-belittles-coeliac-disease/
My e-mail was identical (except it was addressed to me, of course).
Ryan, You have spoken about something YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT, obviously. Some people have gone gluten-free so for some unknown stupid reason, but for the vast majority of us it IS A MATTER of life and death. I have been diagnosed with celiac disease for 4 years, have been hospitalized 4 times, 2 times l almost didn’t survive. I cannot have a speck of gluten small enough not to see. I sadly got some wheat in November and this is January and I am still paying for it, hardly being able to eat ANYTHING, chronic fatigue, painful swollen joints, blistering rash, vomiting, diarhhea, lost a lot of weight and I was already underweight from being malnourished. Suffer seizures, migraines, vision problems, It is a LIFETIME CHRONIC illness, I cannot go out and eat or bring food made elsewhere in, have to fix everything myself, and read over and over again every label, Have to watch cross contamination, from pans, plates, eating utenils, and it can be absorbed through touch also lotion, shampoo, many things. RYAN, I WILL trade you lifes, just the eating part, ANYTIME!!! I have to worry about everything I put in my mouth, everything I touch, how dare you be so flippant about it all – keep your mouth shut unless you are talking about something you know about – which you likely have to read off cues!! You have caused a lot of problems for a lot of very ill people!!
6.4 million of his Twitter followers are young teenagers.
2 million are fake. The rest are his family, relatives, petshop employees, paperboy, milkman, cable guy…etc.
No need for him to blab about gf. He’s just doing it for attention.
He has the personality of a GPS unit.
Okay Ryan, lets practice together. ‘I apologize for my brain-dead
comments about gluten-free and didn’t realize how some people
get very sick from it. I am sorry, I was trying to make a joke and
now realize what a tool I am.”
Going back to 2004 on celiac radio, its Green Day and
“American Idiot”…
Wow, does this piss me off! Along with the CD, I have RLS, too. Comedians like Bill Maher kept saying Restless Legs Syndrome was made up by the Big Pharma to sell gullible idiots more pills. Between the CD and RLS my teen years were HORRIBLE. I never slept a full night until 1998 because of the RLS. I hate, hate, hate when stupid celebrities mouth off like this. GRRR……….
Is it possible that he was making fun of the legions of non-celiac sufferers who are self-diagnosing themselves and their families? I have the utmost respect for those who have celiac disease and make modifications to their diets to stay healthy. I am annoyed by all the folks out there blaming everything — and I do mean everything — on gluten. I would think true celiac sufferers would be similarly annoyed. No?