Does it embarrass anybody else when our dignitaries "Tweet" foreign policy?

[Mike 03]

I promise I am not a Luddite or anything like that, but I blush when one of our top politicians tweets a major announcement on behalf of the U.S. political community. Please, why not call a press conference? Tweets are for birds and celebrities in rehab.

Or, convince me I'm wrong. The only positive I can see is that tweets from the State department actually get coverage on Al Jazeera, but it would be taken even more seriously if the message was delivered live.

Tweets? Is this the wave of the future when it comes to dissemination of foreign policy?


Should it be?

I totally accept that I might be wrong, but right now I feel that our foreign dignitaries tweeting foreign policy opinions is ludicrous, to say the least.

[davidinalameda]

1. no

everyone does it; they can reach probably more people through tweets than with press conferences

:shrug:

[leftstreet]

2. It's probably better than going on Oprah

...or sitting down with paid newsinfotainers to spin their bullshit

Tweets appear to be the tool of The People. (for now anyway)

[RandomThoughts]

3. It is a flaw of large representative systems.

And non diversified information systems, power moves to those that can make up any tweets or suppress them from many people.

If you trust in what is seen.

I think one of the most important decisions I made was to not worry if what I post is read, or if what I read is accurate. From there other effect methods must exist.

[Richardo]

4. How do you know it's really coming from whomever?

I don't twit so I really don't know.

[Warren DeMontague]

5. No.

Things change. Sorry.

[Modern_Matthew]

6. It's not the tweets that embarrass me about our foreign policy. Har har. n/t

[AmandaMae]

7. yeah, kind of,

but twitter is a good way to share information quickly, even if it sounds stupid to "tweet".

[fishwax]

8. I think it's a good thing to use the communication networks that the people use

It's not as though twitter is the only source of disseminating such information, but it can certainly be a useful one.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. the tweets came AFTER the morning conference, NOT covered

by the US Press. Those tweets, I suspect are for our press. Al Jazeera ran it live.

[razorman]

10. I'm pretty embarrassed that anyone 'tweets' anything.

[BlueCheese]

11. Yes. I think it's silly.

The business of government and foreign policy is too serious for tweeting. Tweets are for trivialities. What happens when US policy is too complicated to fit in 140 characters?

[petronius]

12. It seems faddish to me in many instances, as if they're doing it because everyone

else is, and it's the hot new medium. I'm also bothered to some extent by the reporting of tweets when they're treated as the equivalent of a more lengthy statement. It seems to me that, on the one hand it drastically simplifies the conversation, and on the other hand it lets some real lightweights appear to be the equal of more serious intellects...

[Angry Dragon]

13. They just want to be just like sarah

[NoPasaran]

14. Hell yes it does

I'm not saying that these statements need to be written on vellum with a quill pen, but at least little dignity and formality is not out of place. This needs to be stopped before Hillary tweets OMG Mubarek got pwned LOL!