David Waldman makes an interesting point about journalists using Twitter to ask politicians questions: “Why did you vote against the omnibus bill, Sen. McCaskill?” On the surface, there is nothing particularly novel about using Twitter to ask a question. They might have used their blog to do the same thing. Or they might have used email and then posted that email on their blog. But, actually, there is something significant and different here.
When George Stephanopoulos asked Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) about her omnibus vote, he did it in a public sphere rather than a private one. And that meant that he gave up any advantage hearing the answer might have conferred on him. No longer does he get credit for knowing the answer (everyone knows that now) but only for asking the question. Moreover, he can’t spin the answer to fit a preconceived narrative (Democrats in disarray!!) unless the answer warrants such a narrative. He loses control of the answer by allowing it to be heard by everyone. In other words, using Twitter to ask politicians questions is disempowering to journalists. Anyone can do it without even having a politician’s cell phone number.
So, it is not surprising that seeing a journalist use Twitter would make other journalists a bit jumpy.
