Nearly every time I turn on a cable news channel it’s clear why 24-hour television news may be the worst thing ever conceived. The other night, with the Knicks comfortably ahead of the Bulls, I switched over to CNN to see if anything was going on. You know - news from somewhere in the world. Something important that might have an impact on my life or those of my kids and grandkids. Or something gripping, perhaps dramatic footage of flooding, another group of trapped miners or a moving speech by someone.
Anderson Cooper was on, and he was just beginning a segment (or perhaps a figment) about Sarah Palin’s Twitter page. Something that had been on the page was no longer there. Holy Mother of Sacred Frocks! Was my brother in Missouri aware of this? Should I tell him? How about my sister in Indiana? Is this something she needs to know right away? I’ve got a brother in California. Should I call him and simply scream, “Turn on CNN!” and then hang up?
I didn't get on the phone to anyone. I didn’t even call upstairs to Irene. What I did was almost wet myself. Actually I was frozen, could not move. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The only thing that comes close to this paralysis was the time I and a couple of other Americans were in the office of a top gun at Radio Free Europe, complaining about how little money we took home after paying both U.S. and German Social Security and taxes, and he said if we didn’t like it “you could always give up your passports.” I have a very short fuse but didn’t explode that day because I couldn’t believe anyone would say that.
Last week I couldn’t believe anyone would say on television what Anderson Cooper was saying. Sarah Palin had changed her Twitter page! Read all about it! What are the long-range ramifications of this? Is there any sign of activity at the Pentagon? Should someone be on the phone to Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski? What’s Wall Street likely to think of this? Have the Asian markets reacted yet? Are the other nets gearing up for wall-to-wall coverage?
It seems all this excitement on CNN involved a tweet from the conservative writer and commentator Ann Coulter, which had been put on Palin’s Twitter page and listed among Palin’s Favorites. Cooper kept calling what had appeared on the Palin page a retweet. (Question for linguists: If someone else had picked up the Palin page’s retweet of the Coulter tweet would it be correct to describe this as (a) a triple tweet, (b) a tweet, tweet, tweet, (c) a three tweet or (d) baloney?)
The Coulter tweet showed a sign outside the Harlem church of a habitual critic of President Obama, accusing him of being a Taliban Muslim and an “illegally elected president.” As I said, this tweet was picked up by the Palin Twitter page and ranked in its Favorites list, but now it had been removed. In other words, the Palin Twitter page had done a retreat from the retweet. Cooper interviewed a young man who said that he and Coulter, despite very different views on most things, frequently exchanged tweets about this African-American minister and his harangues against President Obama.
Admittedly this was frightening stuff – “Good God, Helen. Now’s not the time to argue. Get the kids and get in the cellar!” – but, political sluggard that I am, I went back to the Knicks´ game. During a time out, I looked in on CNN again and the saga of the disappearing retweet was still in full bloom.
When I mentioned this tweet, retweet business to two working television journalists, they both immediately made the point that you have to fill the time and that can be awfully difficult some days. True, but wasn’t there anything else CNN could have used to burn up ten minutes or so of air time? A feature? A repeat of a hard news story? Even several re-runs of the video showing Wolf Blitzer on a camel would have been better.
The allegations on the church sign are offensive, I think, and Palin can be criticized for briefly giving them wider circulation. But after Palin left her job as governor of Alaska before her term was up, is anything she does or doesn’t do a surprise? Who does she think she is, Eliot Spitzer? I can’t be the only voter who isn’t interested in every breath and gesture of Palin and other potential presidential candidates between now and 2012. We’re even less interested in analysis of those breaths and gestures.
The attention given to the Harlem church sign underscores for me how our technology is far ahead of our common sense. It is now possible for the opinions, distortions, or lies of nearly everyone on the planet - halfwits and know-nothings included - to be instantly disseminated. But just because we have the capability to do it, doesn’t mean we should. When a wildly intemperate statement pops up on a Twitter page or on a video feed, does it automatically warrant exposure or are there still editors and producers who insist on checking if the speaker is someone with a genuine following or represents only himself and 15 other people who flunked out of drum major school?
Should Anderson Cooper be planning to do a tweet, retweet piece for his other employer, CBS News, we can only hope he livens it up with a little music. “Rockin’ Robin,” a hit by Bobby Day in the late 50s written by Leon René, would fit perfectly.
He rocks in the tree tops all day long
Hoppin’ and a-boppin’ and a-singin’ his song.
All the little birds on J-Bird Street,
Love to hear the robin go tweet, tweet, tweet.
(Posted November 11, 2010)