According to a recent Pew study, 15 percent of adults online use Twitter — 8 percent daily. I’ve yet to see a study confirming this, but I’m pretty sure most of that 8 percent are journalists. Journalists love Twitter, whether using it for writing, conversation—or fighting.
And I love to watch—and judge—the sparring. This is the first in what should be a regular feature as long as journalists snipe at each other on Twitter. If you see a #JournoTweetFight that you think merits inclusion, please give me a heads up @saramorrison.
I thought it would be best to begin with one of the bigger Twitter blow-ups this year. Mediabistro’s Jason Boog has a great Storify of the feud in full; I took a couple screenshots:
Author and former newspaper reporter Jennifer Weiner noticed something while reading her issue of The New York Times Magazine last weekend:
Goldman responded:
Salon’s Mary Elizabeth Williams made her feelings known:
And then she and Goldman had a bit of a back-and-forth:
New Yorker TV critic Emily Nussbaum also decided to weigh in:
And then it all devolved into accusations of Stalinism and trollingism until Weiner tweeted that Goldman had apologized (apparently, his wife was about as thrilled with his Twitter antics as Weiner, Williams, and Nussbaum were) and that Weiner appreciated and accepted that apology. Oh, and then Goldman’s Twitter account disappeared.
But it wasn’t over! NYT public editor Margaret Sullivan blogged about the Goldman article that spurred the Twitter debate, addressing his tweets and what the NYT’s role should be in monitoring the use of social media by its employees and freelancers (Goldman is a freelancer). “A clear social media policy may be in order,” she concluded. I hope not; these are really fun.
DECISION: The Female People, as represented by @jenniferweiner, @embeedub, @emilynussbaum, and @andrewrgoldman’s wife, are the clear winners of this round. Those of us who liked Goldman’s Twitter account are the losers, for it is no more.
Sara Morrison is a former assistant editor at CJR. Follow her on Twitter @saramorrison.