In 2015, there’s no time to say “let me explain….”

The latest such example is Fredbird. The mascot of the St. Louis Cardinals was photographed at Busch Stadium on May 17th holding a sign that said POLICE LIVES MATTER. That is a response to the “Black Lives Matter” protests that have popped up across the country since a fatal police involved shooting in Ferguson, Missouri last summer.

In addition to sparking days of civil unrest in Ferguson, the debate over the relationship between law enforcement and the African American community has led to countless family arguments across the country.

According to the Cardinals, two fans placed the sign in Fredbird’s hands (wings?) and took a photo. The photograph was then posted to the website of the St. Louis Police Officer’s Association, with the fans cropped out. The cropped picture then made its way to Twitter, and it looked like the Cardinals were taking a stand on a controversial issue.

The Cardinals were innocent. Fredbird wasn’t taking a controversial stand on anything. Someone shoved a piece of paper in the mascot’s hands and took a picture. That picture hit social media free of context, and the rest of the world was free to draw its own conclusions.

The Cardinals will survive this, of course. But the Fredbird picture is probably responsible for increased Alka Seltzer production by members of the team’s public relations staff. In the future, Fredbird will no doubt have a handler to make sure the mascot isn’t posing with anything controversial or offensive.

It might seem like overkill, but the world now operates at the speed of Twitter, and at that speed there’s no time to say “what I meant to say was…” People who agreed with the message re-posted the picture with words of praise. People who disagreed with the message (or simply hated the Cardinals) re-posted the picture with words of criticism.

The Cardinals handled the controversy as best as they could. The team asked the Police Officer’s Association to remove the photo from their website, and they did. The controversy will fade into the horizon. The upside to the high speed of social media is that the half-life of today’s controversy is almost non-existent. There will be another outrage tomorrow, and five more the following week.

The lesson for any organization is to remain militantly agnostic on any controversial public issue. The White Sox were in Baltimore during the Freddy Gray protests that resulted in cancelation of two games. Players did mention the protests on Twitter, but their opinions didn’t range beyond “we hope for a peaceful resolution to the situation.”

A brand has to go the extra mile to avoid the appearance of bias. Yes, the Cardinals got zapped by forces beyond their control. But the whole thing could have been avoided with a rule that said Fredbird can’t pose with any signs.

If that rule didn’t exist before, it does today.