Many journos who use Twitter place the disclaimer “RTs don’t constitute endorsement” (or some variant) in their bio, presumably to keep up the illusion of not having an opinion on politics, which they can therefore cover objectively.
It’s really kind of a silly claim, but that’s the modern j-school mindset at work here in the U.S.
Still, what’s fun about Twitter is that those journos who do a fair amount of RTing — say, the Houston Chronicle‘s leftwing bureau chief David McCumber — usually reveal quite a bit about their reading patterns (in McCumber’s case, a heavy dose of establishment and left-leaning sites, and no real conservative sites).
And then there are the journos who seem to think nobody is actually paying any attention to what they tweet. Mimi Swartz, an executive editor at Texas Monthly, is one of those sorts of twitter users (although she also exhibits the RT behavior of McCumber).
Recently, there’s Mimi Swartz all but calling Sen. Ted Cruz dumb:
Remember when so many people in Houston talked about how smart Ted Cruz was? Oh, right. Now no one remembers that.
— mimi swartz (@mimiswartz) October 17, 2013
And then there’s Mimi Swartz with a non-sequitur:
Ted Cruz antidote: How a Texas Philanthropist Helped Fund the Hunt for Joseph Kony http://t.co/SbEc8T7d9P via @NewYorker
— mimi swartz (@mimiswartz) October 22, 2013
What does Ted Cruz have to do with Kony? Beats me. But Mimi Swartz knows, because she’s sharper than you. And me.
Don’t believe me? Well, if you have any sympathies for the Tea Party movement — and chances are you might if you’ve followed this blog for very long — Mimi Swartz has tweeted just that:
@EricaGrieder I think the common denominator might be having a very low IQ.
— mimi swartz (@mimiswartz) October 18, 2013
So, to sum up the executive editor of Texas Monthly from recent twitter output: Ted Cruz is stupid, Tea Party people are stupid, and Ted Cruz hasn’t tracked down Kony (or something).
At least Mimi Swartz doesn’t bother with the insipid “RTs don’t constitute endorsements” disclaimer on her twitter bio. *shrug*