Dave Kindred on Twitter

Thanks for the insight, LW.

I'm sure it's important for a Chicago-area paper that staffed five writers to get that story. No doubt. That was an incorrect generalization on my part.

Nor am I against the use of social media as a reporting tool. I use it all the time.

But I agree with Kindred that underqualifiied sources were overused, and many columnists and talking heads used their quotes without proper context.

 

Do you make a habit of checking twitter feeds of random NFL players during games to see their reaction to the game? Is this regular practice? Okay, so why was this specific case reported when others weren't?

The answer people want to give is that this case was unique, but I somehow doubt it. I'm sure this isn't the first time an NFL player has spouted off on Twitter. This was just a case of reporters jumping on something because it was handed to them, and it fit the story they wanted to write.

 

Because it was the NFC Championship Game.

Besides, plenty of Twitter spout-offs have been reported prior to this.

Look at all the fall out right now with the UF kid and his Twitter posts.

 

Hey, what's your favorite NFL team, again?

 

The Bears. If it wasn't, I'm pretty sure I'd have the same opinion on the subject, I just wouldn't care enough to post so frequently on the subject.

 

My biggest problem with reporting Tweets is how does the reporter or columnist know the Tweets are genuine? Probably 99 percent of the time the Tweet is from actual athlete. But what happens if someone else Tweets something critical or defamatory under an athlete's handle? What if MJD wasn't the one Tweeting about Cutler during the NFC championship game? The reporter has no way of knowing unless he's in the room while the athlete is Tweeting.
that said, I think athlete Tweets are fun to read. The ones I follow are great, be it during a race or a round of golf or even visiting a new city.

 

It seems to me that negative Tweets fall under the old "if it bleeds - it leads" category.

I can't recall any positive Tweets about a player performance leading SportsCenter.

Call me cynical but I wonder if any columnists had their "When the going gets tough - quit" leads were blown by Maurice Jones Drew's Tweet.

 

Twitter has something called a verified account ... I would think no journalist would quote a tweet from an account that's not verified.

 

That may be true but I'd guess that some columns have been sparked by comments by FakeAlDavis and JonGrudensPenis

 

That, and verified tweets are like press releases. They may be written by the account holder's flack, friends, ect., but they are still accountable for what's written.

 

In the immortal words of Jeannie Bueller, dry that one out, you can fertilize the lawn.