A former ESPN host the wife of an ex-NFL quarterback revealed the ‘vicious’ messages she received on social media after offering condolences to the family of Charlie Kirk.
Samantha Ponder took to ‘Saturday in America’ on Fox News and revealed to the network’s hosts the slew of anger she received.
Ponder told former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany that she didn’t think twice after re-sharing a video of Kirk and his family on social media.
‘The strange thing is I didn’t really say much. I reposted a video of his family just because I thought it was so relatable to see because he’s a dad,’ said Ponder – the wife of former NFL signal caller Christian Ponder.
‘You forget when you watch people on TV sometimes that this is just a dad who is a husband and has these little kids.
‘So, I reposted a video of their family on vacation and I immediately lost thousands of followers – and who cares? This is not about me.
Former ESPN on-air talent Samantha Ponder revealed she received hateful messages after uploading a post to social media which celebrated the life of Charlie Kirk
After posting an image of Kirk and his family, she was barraged with direct messages
‘But it was more about seeing what’s going on in our country right now and I got just vicious messages, which any of us who have worked in TV get all the time. I’m used to that.
‘But it was in response to something that I thought we could all agree on – man, it’s sad when someone’s murdered. I thought that was just something the general public could agree on.’
Ponder then added her own commentary, saying that social media algorithms have divided the nation so that people don’t see how the other half lives, so to speak.
Ponder was concerned about what people are seeing on different sides of social media as every person’s algorithm is different. She contrasted what she was seeing about Kirk and his family versus the messages she received.
‘I think it said a lot about where we are as a country, but I also think it says a lot about the algorithms that we’re dealing with,’ she said.
‘I saw so many people message me, saying “He was a racist. He was a bigot.” So, I thought, “I didn’t know that about him. Let me do a little research.” And you know what I found? I found highly edited videos of short clips where you could make anyone sound terrible all put together.
‘I almost don’t blame the people who felt that way because they are being lied to. They’re being tricked. They’re not sitting and watching a long debate with Charlie Kirk.
‘They’re seeing what their algorithm gives them. I had people saying, “I didn’t see anybody mourning his death.” And I’m thinking, I’m seeing doctors, nurses, teachers, moms that were laughing about his death, his murder that we all saw.
‘Those people weren’t seeing it all. So, that tells us we’re seeing two different Americas and a lot of it is because of the social media algorithm that we are all just chronically online addicted to, which is a real problem.’
