Filed under: Twitter
There’s an interesting story in this morning’s Hill newspaper about how several House Republicans posted instant Twitter responses during their meeting with President Obama yesterday.
The final Hill article linked here almost exclusively consists of quotes from U.S. Reps. Jeff Flake, Michael Burgess, Bob Inglis, John Culberson and Pete Hoekstra. However, an early version of the article that I read last night only consisted of quotes collected via Twitter – possibly the first time that’s ever been done in Congressional reporting.
This should be a wake-up call to all Hill press secretaries, as well as something that should send a shiver down their collective spine.
On the one hand, Twitter provides Members of Congress with an amazing rapid response opportunity. As we saw yesterday, they have an opportunity to respond even before a meeting ends.
But on the other hand, for a Hill staffer, there’s nothing quite as scary as your boss going off and posting statements on the Internet without any input or review from the staff.
It really is just a matter of time before a Member of Congress posts something truly boneheaded on Twitter. But that doesn’t mean they should be using this powerful new tool.
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