Oh For Pity’s Sake… The Times Fails to Get Twitter… AGAIN!
I’ve been pointed at Rachel Sylvester’s latest column in The Times, regarding Twitter and political engagement.
Hey there! Gordon Brown is using Twitter. It’s true. You can, on the Downing Street website, read a blow-by-blow account of the Prime Minister’s day…. The Labour Party has issued guidance to its MPs on how to tweet; there is even a website, Tweetminster, to co-ordinate the internet haikus of our political masters.
Right then two paragraphs in and I’ve given up. Let’s shoot this down before it takes off, like a Junkers JU-87 stalking a Lancaster back from the Ruhr.
The Number Ten press team have acknowledge rather openly that it’s the PM’s spokesman’s office on Twitter, not Gordon Brown. And Tweetminster is for all politicians, not just Labour MPs. And while the party has issued guidance, many MP’s have told them how high they can jump.
The Times have form in shouting down Twitter. Beyond the tabloid let’s knock down the big thing, what is The Times so afraid of?
Why do they have to be afraid of anything? They’re probably just, understandably, wondering what the hell it’s actually useful for over other technologies.
Still wondering that myself.
for stephen fry’s theory on why the print press have it in for twitter, see here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7934941.stm