Twitter is a powerful medium for communication. Messages can be posted in seconds and from anywhere, and can reach a nearly limitless number of listeners. But, with great power, well, . . . you know.
CNN editor Octavia Nasr is the latest personality to make headlines for tweeting her way to the unemployment line. Nasr, who was responsible for the news station's Middle Eastern coverage, tweeted kind words about a Lebanese cleric who was famously anti-American. When he passed away on Sunday, Nasr tweeted that he was "one of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot."
CNN issued a statement calling the tweet an "error in judgment." Nasr responded, blogging that she was referring to the cleric's position against so-called "honor killing" of women. She acknowledged that the life of a designated terrorist is not something she should have commented about "in a brief tweet. It's something that I deeply regret."
Nasr was a 20-year veteran of CNN and the decision for her to leave the company may seem to some to be a harsh sentence for a 140-character tweet.
Source: Associated Press
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"Nasr was a 20-year veteran of CNN and the decision for her to leave the company may seem to some to be a harsh sentence for a 140-character tweet."
Gosh, really? As Glenn Greenwald wrote:
"Just look at the things that are allowed. The Washington Post lavished editorial praise on the brutal, right-wing tyrant Augusto Pinochet, and that caused no controversy. AP's Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier got caught sending secret, supportive emails to Karl Rove, and nothing happened. Benjamin Netanyahu formally celebrates the Terrorist bombing of the King David Hotel that killed 78 civilians and nobody is stigmatized for supporting him. Erick Erickson sent around the most rancid and arguably racist tweets, only to thereafter be hired as a CNN contributor. And as Jonathan Schwarz wrote of the Nasr firing:
'William Barr is on the board of directors of Time Warner, the parent company of CNN. Barr was a senior adviser in the Reagan administration, which attempted to assassinate Fadlallah, missing him and killing more than eighty bystanders.'
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I mean, people have to watch their Tweets, but you should also realize your audience. Evidently, if you're in the media, there's no infraction too small that'll get you fired ... unless that issue is supporting right wing causes. Then, IOKIYAR.
Twitter is a huge application with a number of amazing uses that can be applied to business. Palo Alto has written a practical guide to how to safely allow twitter to be used in the workplace while still protecting the security of your business. The white paper http://bit.ly/9G1Z3A is really interesting and will allow you to understand that there is utility to Twitter and that it can be an excellent medium for business.