Politics

For president-elect, Twitter is the new ‘fireside chat’

Bob CollinsBob Collins Dec 4, 2016
30

Donald Trump’s penchant for communicating via Twitter while ignoring mainstream media is rewriting all the rules.

Take this question, for example. If a president has chosen Twitter to communicate with the people he represents, is it ethical to “block” people from following him and, thus, hearing what he has to say?

“It makes me laugh in a way that’s not funny,” activist Heather Spohr, 37, a blogger and freelance writer, tells the Los Angeles Times. “I can’t see the tweets of the president-elect. He’s going to be my president. It’s absurd.”

“The president should speak to all Americans directly and not filter people out,” Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian at New York University, tells the Times. “Are people blocked from watching television or listening to radio when a president gives an address? The president-elect needs to get used to the idea that presidential words matter. And everyone needs access to those words.”

Whoever saw this sort of question coming?

Last night, predictably, Saturday Night Live poked at the president-elect’s love of the social media tool.

Shortly after, predictably, the president-elect issued his official response via Twitter.

Shortly after that the president-elect tackled policy in a series of tweets targeting another Indiana company threatening to leave the country.