Whats To Be Done About Donald Trumps Constant Tweeting? [View all]

[HAB911]

A handy guide for journalists.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-twitter-journalists_us_586c037fe4b0eb58648ad66a

Since it would appear that President-elect Donald Trump is not going to give up using his Twitter account ― which is probably the one good thing the social media company’s share value has going for it ― it would seem that journalists have a new problem: figuring a way to keep Trump’s insomniac utterances from making a complete hash of their work.

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Back when Washington Post reporter David Weigel was writing for the Washington Independent, he faced a similar conundrum with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who by the end of 2009 had taken to using Facebook as her communications medium of choice. As Weigel pointed out in a piece titled, “Why I Don’t Write About Sarah Palin’s Facebook Posts,” it was a key ingredient in a rather shrewd media strategy:

The problem is that Palin has put the political press in a submissive position, one in which the only information it prints about her comes from prepared statements or from Q&As with friendly interviewers. This isn’t something most politicians get away with, or would be allowed to get away with. But Palin has leveraged her celebrity — her ability to get ratings, the ardor of her fans and the bitterness of her critics — to win a truly unique relationship with the press. She is allowed to shape the public debate without actually engaging in it.


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Of course, at some point Trump will gain access to “@POTUS,” the legacy Twitter account established by the Obama administration. No matter how Trump uses it, It’s going to become tempting to view tweets from that account as the real deal ― the authentic voice of the White House. You might be inclined to accord that account full faith and credit. Don’t do this! As I said back when the Obama White House first built this infernal contraption, it doesn’t produce authentic events, either:

Anyone who thinks that this new outlet is going to be a venue for the president’s unvarnished, sincere opinion needs to get his head examined. And yes, that cute little exchange between Obama and former President Bill Clinton was absolutely a tidy bit of Oval Office kayfabe. Anything that gets posted to the @POTUS account will be vetted [by White House communications staff] within an inch of its life, and anything remotely interesting will be stripped out and watered down.