Sep
29
Unbeknownst to me, a few hours before I wrote my post on Robert Henson’s Twitter troubles, The Washington Post’s ombudsman Andrew Alexander blogged about the tweets of the paper’s co-managing editor Raju Narisetti, which stirred controversy of their own.
Narisetti, one of top editors at The Post, wrote tweets on healthcare and congressional term limits, personal thoughts that others in the newsroom believed were too opinionated and could hurt the paper’s reputation. One said, “Sen Byrd (91) in hospital after he falls from ‘standing up too quickly.’ How about term limits. Or retirement age. Or commonsense to prevail.” According to Alexander, Narisetti “now realizes that his tweets, although intended for a private audience of about 90 friends and associates, were unwise.” His Twitter account is now defunct.
Sound familiar?
Narisetti’s tweet might seem a far cry from Henson calling booing Redskins fans “dim wits” (especially considering the team’s loss to the Lions on Sunday validating the negative fan reaction). But Twitter, for both, turned from what they considered a semi-“private” social networking tool into a public forum for debate and condemnation. Both, like many of us, forgot the power and scope of social networking sites for stirring and disseminating news.
Perhaps Narisetti should have paid more attention to his own paper’s coverage of Henson’s trying times with Twitter.
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