As Ken Jennings prepares to substitute the late Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, he has some discussing to do.
The program’s all-time champ relied on Twitter on Wednesday, Dec. 30, to clarify why he had not erased some questionable tweets from his past. In November, an old post was discovered that some identified as ableist. Specially, one 2014 message read, “Nothing sadder than a hot person in a wheelchair.” He appeared to eliminate it after Trebek passed away of pancreatic cancer at age 80 last month.
Jennings stated today he wished to “own up to the fact that over the years on Twitter, I’ve definitely tweeted some unartful and insensitive things.” The 46-year-old brainiac included, “Sometimes they worked as jokes in my head and I was dismayed to see how they read on screen.”
His series of tweets discussed that in the past he would leave “bad tweets” up so they might be “dunked on” and “lead to smart replies and even advocacy.” He continued, “Deleting them felt like whitewashing a mistake,” and stated, “But I think that practice may have given the impression I stand by every failed joke I’ve ever posted here. Not at all!”
