A study in contrasts.
The grassroots Twitter campaign to call attention to the mainstream media blackout on the Kermit Gosnell trial was a huge success, 166,800 #Gosnell tweets in 12 hours (h/t @rsmcain):
The Gosnell “tweetfest” on Friday proved to be a massive success, inspiring critical reflections by liberal journalists, mainstream media coverage, and an unprecedented groundswell of citizen action aimed at breaking through a media blackout.Between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, more than 166,800 tweets had been posted on Twitter using the #Gosnell hashtag….The activity impacted new and old media.Self-described “pro-choice” reporter Megan McArdle wrote in the Daily Beast that she regretted not reporting on the “trial of the century.” Salon magazine insisted there was no blackout.But the campaign had its intended effect.Jake Tapper did the last segment of his CNN program The Lead on the capital murder trial. It lasted less than five minutes. The topic was scheduled to come up again Friday evening on Anderson Cooper 360.Political figures including a former Senator, two Congressmen, and a Republican presidential hopeful took part in the grassroots campaign.Activism peaked at 11 a.m., when 23,600 messages contained those characters.
Compare to White House Plans Anti-Gun Twitterbomb:
The White House is asking people to support their call for greater government power via a massive anti-gun twitterbomb.The White House is using a third-party system called “Thunderclap“. Thunderclap is a system by which people log in with a Twitter or FB account, then decide to share a message, and the system holds their message until a threshold is met.When the threshold is met, all of their messages are sent at once, creating a “thunderclap” twitterbomb that dominates discussion by effectively generating an artificial viral meme. It’s very collectivist, and quite sinister to see the White House orchestrating and agitating for greater government power by becoming the puppeteers of an engineered outcry….
People power versus the Machine.
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