A very expensive lesson in linguistics for Paula Deen. Literally being haunted by words that hurt. I expect to see more of this in times ahead with all of the technology advances, smart phones, video files, digital pictures. It is going to be a lot more difficult to take back behaviors, actions, and words that are said in the moment, and are now recorded for perpetuity. Media has been a much more controlled medium when technology and its distribution were not accessible to every citizen, man, woman, and child. Watching Paula Deen's self-destructive media demise has been painful to all who work in the entertainment industry. It was like wanting to scream, "Shut up, you've said enough already."
When Tiger Woods lost his lucrative endorsement deals, he at least slept with tons of women, at least grounds for divorce. It was, however, the written word in text, that ruined his squeaky clean multimillion dollar brand image. Charlie Sheen and Alec Baldwin are not selling us squeaky clean, they get away with saying anything that is homophobic, racial, and sexist. In fact, on some level, it is seen as humorous because, after all, they are the bad boys.
As in the macro, so in the micro, the rest of us civilians may not have multimillion dollar brand deals at stake; however, our livelihood is at the mercy of our spoken or written word and behavior, and the record of it to be mindful of for years to come. Getting caught in the act today is different than it ever was because we are literally living the reality show. Now, isn't Rob Lowe grateful that most are now too young to remember?