Quoting Twitter

I looked around for a thread on this and, much to my surprise, didn't find anything.

We're now frequently running rails of Twitter quotes in reaction to big stories.

I like Twitter, personally. I spend ... I don't know, a half hour, hour on it every day.

That said, I don't think it's useful as a primary source for newspapers. I think it's borderline negligence to not follow, but I also think it's incredibly pointless to let Rory McIlroy weigh in on Andy Murray's title.

Not my call though.

So, what's the protocol for cleaning it up? Periods at the end, at least? Change U R to you're? It looks pretty ugly when you see 10 in a row.

 

Does anyone really give two cents that Sean Connery likes Andy Murray or what LeBron James thinks about Peyton Manning or Barack Obama? I could care less. It's all background noise. With today's tighter newshole, I really don't want to waste valuable space on celebrity gossip.

 

RT

 

I have used a few Twitter quotes, in context, when other resources seemed to be lacking.

A fair example: Immediate reaction from U.S. Olympic long jumper Brittney Reese after winning gold in London. Absent a quote sheet from USA Track & Field when I was doing a first draft for the Web, it was a good resource to quote what she had to say on her Twitter account.

By the time we go to press, of course, we had "real" quotes.

We've had a couple athletes with local ties announce engagements/weddings/births on Twitter. Again, it ain't Watergate, but people in my market would like to know that Mitch Moreland said "It's a boy!" or whatever.

 

I think it's different if you are tweeting about your own life or events, not someone else's.

 

I think it's fine to use them if it is relevant and there is no other way to get the quote. But DO NOT clean it up! If it needs that much cleaning up I wouldn't even use it. But a rial of Twitter quotes? Yikes!