Some In Congress Used Twitter During Obama's Speech
Technology's Use Raises Questions About Etiquette
Updated: 8:52 am CST February 26, 2009
MADISON, Wis. -- On Tuesday night, the nation's attention was focused on President Barack Obama for his primetime address, but some members of Congress were busy using Twitter during the speech.
VIDEO: Watch The ReportTwitter is a Web-based tool that allows people to send out updates online on what they're doing or thinking via text messages.During the president's address Tuesday, many members of Congress were doing just that, which has some questioning the proper etiquette for using the technology.Most of the messages had to do with the speech, though some strayed from the topic, such as an update from Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, who wrote: "The Aggie basketball game is about to start on ESPN 2, for those of you that aren't going to bother watching Pelosi smirk for the next hour."Charles Franklin, a political science professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that Barton's comments on Twitter border on risky."The comment that's intended to be humorous, but if you don't hear it right, you don't read it right, it comes across in a very negative light," Franklin said.Barton later blamed a staffer in a subsequent Twitter update and has since deleted both messages posted Tuesday night.Political experts said the communication tool has pros and cons."I think the strength of it is the direct contact to your constituents. They can hear a message from you multiple times a day," Franklin said. "Of course the downside is that like everything that's a communication that can be captured and forwarded, you have to be careful you don't embarrass yourself."While Democrats mainly used their updates to share the president's message, some Republicans used Twitter to pan the president.Some viewers told WISC-TV they thought the behavior was rude."They should have been more respectful and paid attention to the speech," said Debbie Ogden."I think we've got a crisis in this country and I would think at least the Congress people would pay attention, even if they didn't agree to every word," said viewer Tony Fernandez.Communications expert Michael Flaherty said he feels it's rude for members of Congress to post updates during a presidential address."That's the president of the United States. He's giving a major speech on the state of the economy. They're elected representatives for almost 300 million people. They should be paying attention," Flaherty said.As far as some of Wisconsin's members of Congress, Sen. Russ Feingold and Rep. Paul Ryan both use Twitter, but neither were updating their Twitter pages Tuesday night.
VIDEO: Watch The ReportTwitter is a Web-based tool that allows people to send out updates online on what they're doing or thinking via text messages.During the president's address Tuesday, many members of Congress were doing just that, which has some questioning the proper etiquette for using the technology.Most of the messages had to do with the speech, though some strayed from the topic, such as an update from Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, who wrote: "The Aggie basketball game is about to start on ESPN 2, for those of you that aren't going to bother watching Pelosi smirk for the next hour."Charles Franklin, a political science professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that Barton's comments on Twitter border on risky."The comment that's intended to be humorous, but if you don't hear it right, you don't read it right, it comes across in a very negative light," Franklin said.Barton later blamed a staffer in a subsequent Twitter update and has since deleted both messages posted Tuesday night.Political experts said the communication tool has pros and cons."I think the strength of it is the direct contact to your constituents. They can hear a message from you multiple times a day," Franklin said. "Of course the downside is that like everything that's a communication that can be captured and forwarded, you have to be careful you don't embarrass yourself."While Democrats mainly used their updates to share the president's message, some Republicans used Twitter to pan the president.Some viewers told WISC-TV they thought the behavior was rude."They should have been more respectful and paid attention to the speech," said Debbie Ogden."I think we've got a crisis in this country and I would think at least the Congress people would pay attention, even if they didn't agree to every word," said viewer Tony Fernandez.Communications expert Michael Flaherty said he feels it's rude for members of Congress to post updates during a presidential address."That's the president of the United States. He's giving a major speech on the state of the economy. They're elected representatives for almost 300 million people. They should be paying attention," Flaherty said.As far as some of Wisconsin's members of Congress, Sen. Russ Feingold and Rep. Paul Ryan both use Twitter, but neither were updating their Twitter pages Tuesday night.Copyright 2009 by Channel 3000. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
