[See three four five six seven eight nine updates following original post.]
The New York Times columnist colorfully adds her name to the growing list of mainstream media stars diving into the latest trend: bashing Twitter.
Dowd interviews Biz Stone and Ev Williams, Twitter's founders. Her final query:
ME: I would rather be tied up to stakes in the Kalahari Desert, have honey poured over me and red ants eat out my eyes than open a Twitter account. Is there anything you can say to change my mind?
BIZ: Well, when you do find yourself in that position, you’re gonna want Twitter. You might want to type out the message “Help.”
Other MSMers feeling the need in recent days to spout their Twitter disgust:
• CBS Sunday Morning's Nancy Giles.
• Syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker: "If you’re looking for Eureka you won’t find it while following David Gregory’s tweets."
• Miami Herald's Leonard Pitts: "I will never Twitter you."
• New York Times's Allesandra Stanley on narcissistic tweeting journalists: "The Pokemon of the blogosphere."
• And finally, there is Washington Post funnyman Dana Milbank's recent Twitter column, in which his many errors utterly undermine his thesis.
• Update I: Overrated comic-stripper Garry Trudeau goes after Twitter too. Analysis here. Further hilarity here.
• Update II: Matt Bai at New York Times Magazine joins the party.
• Update III: The Financial Times slams Twitter for its "power to misinform" regarding the swine flu epidemic.
[Blogger Simon T. Kay replies: "I’m not sure how comfortable I am with the blind assumption that vetted, ‘establishment’ data is always preferable."]
• Update IV: Predictably partisan MSNBC-er Rachel Maddow mocks the innovative Twitter citizen's press conference run by the Israeli Consulate in New York City in December 2008: " 'The Israeli government is trying to explain a conflict that people write books about, a conflict that newspaper writers struggle to explain in 2,000 words, in 140 characters at a time,' she marveled." Here is Municipalist's Q & A with that event's organizer. [Here is video of that office's David Saranga presenting to an audience about that event, in which he replies to Maddow.]
[Further along the same ideological lines as Maddow comes this lazy hit piece on the whole Twitter press conference event from something called COMOPS Journal, which rips Twitter mainly because, it seems, it was used by Israel. Therefore it must be bad.]
• Update V: Sort-of related: Here is the fabulously-informed William Beutler on how ABC News is monitoring Twitter. To farcical results.
• Update VI is this tweet from the Washington Post's technology columnist Rob Pegoraro: "E&P story says 'a senior editor must give approval before a Post employee can Twitter.' Uh, guess I forgot to ask... " http://bit.ly/4gaqm #fb
• Update VII, June 2009: Here is the Howard Kurtz-hosted show on CNN called Reliable Sources,first showing tape of Jon Stewart ripping on Twitter, then hosting a debate between Twitter supporter Rich Sanchez of CNN and very scary guy Gregg Doyel of something called CBS Sportsline in opposition. Doyle called Twitter "the teeny-bopper-ification of America." By the way he is dressed, Doyel just rolled out bed, apparently.
"Eventually it will just become white noise," Doyel says. "We'll hear none of it ... Twitter is the pet rock of the 21st century."
• Update VIII, June 2009: Rush Limbaugh says no to social media. And then complains that any Twitter account bearing his name is not him.
• Update IX: December 2009: Cokie Roberts says Twitter is 'rude and appalling.'
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