The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
James Taranto is out of the office on assignment. The excerpt below is from the June 24th BOTW Archives.
‘The Loudmouthed and Obnoxious Chris Matthews’
“Associated Press editors last week updated employee guidelines to include new rules for social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace,” Editor & Publisher reports. One Twitter rule:
When tweeting, remember that’s there [sic] a big difference between providing an observation (“I nearly bumped into [MSNBC political commentator] Chris Matthews outside Penn Station”) and an opinion (“I nearly bumped into the loudmouthed and obnoxious Chris Matthews”).
The memo says the guidelines apply to all AP employees, not just journalists. So remember, if you work for the AP and want to call Chris Matthews loudmouthed and obnoxious, don’t do it on Twitter. Write a set of “guidelines” instead.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.
