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Monday morning, Globe editors published a BNN (Business News Network) video discussion on brand, the CBC and Jian Ghomeshi with the headline "Can Jian Ghomeshi rebuild his brand?"
The Globe's business Twitter account then automatically sent out a link to the video. That automatic process reproduces the same headline in the tweet.
It was quickly changed to "Can the CBC rebuild its brand after Ghomeshi" which was the broader subject of the BNN video.
But the response on Twitter was swift.
"Dumb to promote it as can Ghomeshi rebuild his brand. Tone deaf" one reader said.
Another called the original headline horrific and insensitive. One reader said "Watched it. More about if @CBC can salvage its brand."
These readers are right on all counts. It was dumb to raise the issue of Ghomeshi's brand at a time when the police are investigating very serious allegations. It was insensitive to raise a question about his brand when the issue is so much more important than such a trivial question.
It was a very poor editorial choice by The Globe to select that video, a choice made even worse by the fact it was automatically sent on Twitter.
Kevin Siu, The Globe's head of digital editorial, says that in addition to staff-produced Globe video, there are arrangements that allow The Globe to run video from a number of different media organizations, including Reuters, The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and BNN.
"It's our editors' jobs to select which of those videos we would like to present to our audience. In the case of this BNN video, we made an error in editorial judgment," Mr. Siu said. "After a week of multiple allegations against Ghomeshi of abuse, asking how he can rebuild his brand is offensive."