Troll Calls Jeff Gordon Revenge Video Target A Troll

You couldn’t go anywhere online yesterday without seeing the Jeff Gordon revenge video on Jalopnik Deputy Editor Travis Okulski. It was everything revenge videos are supposed to be, as the target was clearly scared out of his mind and admitted himself that he thought he was going to die. Just classic stuff.

But as I happened to browse through twitter on the topic, I couldn’t help but notice one tweet that was getting a little momentum, mainly because USA Today retweeted it. It was from Ellen J. Horrow and it read as follows: “Jeff Gordon gets revenge on Internet troll with a phony police chase.” A link to the USA Today article followed.

So who is Ellen J. Horrow? Well according to her own twitter profile, she’s a “Motor Sports web editor for USA Today Sports.” Ahh, that explains the retweet from USA Today. But it doesn’t explain the fact that a motorsports editor is calling a fellow automotive editor a troll.

Apparently it breaks down like this:

MotorSports Editor for USA Today = respectable professional

Deputy Editor at Jalopnik = troll

For even tweeting the remark, I would think that Horrow is more of a troll in this instance. Full disclosure, it appears she obviously regurgitated the tweet from USA Today property For The Win. But when you are tweeting or copying a tweet, maybe make sure the person being referred to as a troll doesn’t do the exact same thing that you do.

While I may be defending Jalopnik here, it brought another instance to mind concerning trolls. In a story in Jalopnik about shifter knob thieves at the Chicago Auto Show, the title of the article was “Troll Steals Shifter Knob From Auto Show, Post About It, Gets Owned.” Now I appreciate calling out the idiot more than anyone. But does it make him a troll? I would have thought that “piece of shit” or simply “thief” would define the perpetrator better.

Am I missing something or did the definition of troll change somewhere along the line?

And just for fun, here’s the Jeff Gordon revenge video, in case you are the one person that hasn’t seen it.