Tweet Reports

Tweet Reports

    I am sorry, I know I am old, as in fuddy-duddy. Anyone as old as me knows exactly what that means. Stuck in the past, set in his ways, its always worked, why change it?Yeah, I’m that guy.

When did social media become a means for reporting? When did it become a substitute for… oh, I don’t know…journalism? You know, the kind where you research a story, including actually interviewing someone. Stick a microphone or recorder in someone’s face and see what their reaction is to some really tough questions and then tell me about that!

Today this is the story.

A man is accused of killing his wife. He was arrested early this morning with a blood on his hands, an axe, duct tape, bone saw and some plastic. He was headed up the hills in his SUV with her body in the back.

Here’s what he had to say about the whole ordeal:

Cut to the social media feed…

Uh, I didn’t do it. I was washing my car. I was feeding my cat. It is really sad that I am being profiled for…fill in the blank.

Here’s a newsflash for all the news savvy people. We are who we want to be on the social media page. Of course, I didn’t do it. Unless it was a good thing, then, hell yes! I did it.

It gets worse. The rest of the report is about what everyone else thinks, again quoting the social media blurbs as if journalism is now subject to interpretation by all of the rest of us.

Don’t get me wrong. This is social media. I get it. I like it. We all have our opinions and I want to hear all of them.

Just not when someone who went to college and presumably earned a degree in journalism is reporting something to me.

Next time I write a story, I will just use tweets. No need to do the actual work.

 

Thanks for reading.

Tim