And the Highland election campaign gets off to a flying start...

[daibhidc]

...with Labour's Moray candidate getting sacked for foul-mouthed tweets about the elderly, ethnic minorities, women, and other Labourites

Sheesh, what is it about Scottish politicians and their inability to grasp that if you put something on Twitter, the public can see it? At least Patrick Harvie (who tweeted about how dull his meal with Brown and Salmond was, during the meal) was just a bit ill-mannered...

Comments

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

There are an amazing amount of people who fail to grasp that the closer something electronic is, or the more famous or powerful you are, the more likely it is for your words to be recorded and leaked.

People really need to start thinking that everything they type on a keyboard, every web page they visit, and every word they utter into a phone will be tomorrow's headlines.

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

But in this case, it wasn't even a leak. He put the stuff on the internet himself, without the slightest consideration for the consequences.

OTOH, it could be worse: he could have hated old people and ethnic minorities and been smart enough not to announce this to the world...

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

There's also a lack of understanding about how connected the public is these days. Previously, a politician might make a remark like this in front of friends or people at a party or restaurant, and it would take months, if not years, to circulate even just within the one city.

Today, a carelessly chosen phrase can circle the planet and be known to billions before the speaker (or Twitterer) has time to think "Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have said that."

And Twitter plugs directly into the heart of this communication. It's powerful. Career-endingly powerful.

I have to wonder if part of the reason this is happening is that the only people in such politicians' offices who could take them aside and explain this new communications paradigm are junior sub-sub-sub-lackeys, and therefore not being listened to?

Oh well. It's one way to weed out politicians who don't or can't listen, I suppose.

[rob-t-firefly.livejournal.com]

It's not just politicians, people from all walks of life are regularly suffering the consequences of stuff they themselves put on the Internet. I recently noted how glad I am that my irresponsible youth mostly predated the Internet explosion.