David Waldman makes an interesting point about journalists using Twitter to ask politicians questions: “Why did you vote against the omnibus bill, Sen. McCaskill?” On the surface, there is nothing particularly novel about using Twitter to ask a question. They might have used their blog to do the same thing. Or they might have used email and then posted that email on their blog. But, actually, there is something significant and different here.
When George Stephanopoulos asked Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) about her omnibus vote, he did it in a public sphere rather than a private one. And that meant that he gave up any advantage hearing the answer might have conferred on him. No longer does he get credit for knowing the answer (everyone knows that now) but only for asking the question. Moreover, he can’t spin the answer to fit a preconceived narrative (Democrats in disarray!!) unless the answer warrants such a narrative. He loses control of the answer by allowing it to be heard by everyone. In other words, using Twitter to ask politicians questions is disempowering to journalists. Anyone can do it without even having a politician’s cell phone number.
So, it is not surprising that seeing a journalist use Twitter would make other journalists a bit jumpy.
It’s going to happen with increasing frequency. There’s an article in today’s NYT about the decline of newspapers. Some will continue to exist as online publications only, and staffs will shrink. With the increasing migration of journalism to the internet and useage of new technologies, reporters will continue to lose control.
Twitter is stupid.
Out
Certainly for THAT use, agreed.
As if politicians are sitting around listening to journalists twitter. Just ridiculous. As if ANYONE is sitting around listening to ANYONE, seriously. I poke in now and then – like once a month, so see what the very few I’ve subscribed to have said – and most of the time, it’s not anything much.
For entertainment only. Sheesh!
I think the journalistic use of twitter is going to be minimal. They (the politicians) are just going to stop answering questions via Twitter and use it (like Meet the Press) just for spin. Claire has already said she “just can’t” answer all the questions that are tweeted her way.
What’s been funny to watch is how Claire is a natural born twitterer. She always makes her twitters seem personal and off the cuff – even though we know they aren’t. And she includes “personal” stuff (that’s all planned I’m sure). I’m sure we’ll be seeing Mizzou basketball twitters tonight. And the people at home will love that. It will be like watching the game with Claire.
do people love how her voting record resembles Ben Nelson’s?
Well, I don’t. But I’m not necessarily representative of Missouri. On the other hand she is voting more conservatively than she needs to and I think that’s showing in the fact that she only polls 50/50 among independents.
But you are comparing apples and oranges. Twitter is all about PR and not substance. She is GREAT at PR. She always has been. Her PR schtick when she was state auditor was to come out looking tough all the time. Now her PR schtick is all smiley and “of the people”.
I’m pissed off at her but I try not to let that cloud my ability to take a step back and see what she’s good at. She’s a good twitterer.
She ranks 51st on the Progressive Punch state tilt score. That means she is way to the right of her state.
My opinion is that’s why her polling among independents isn’t great. The last SUSA Poll showed this:
And that’s been pretty consistent. If she wants to be re-elected in something other than a close race she needs to be start doing better among independents over the next four years. She’s never going to achieve anything with Republicans the way Bond has with Democrats. Here’s his latest numbers (they never change much either):
She’s never going to get 46% of Republicans to approve of her, not in Missouri. So she needs to work on independents. She mistakenly seems to believe that voting conservative will do that.
I’m giggling at the thought of “good twitterer” as a major political asset.
Soon to be offered as a minor course of study at a prominent university, no doubt.