According to a recent Pew study, 15 percent of adults online use Twitter — 8 percent daily. 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.
If you see a #JournoTweetFight that you think merits inclusion, please give me a heads up @saramorrison.
Jonah Hill isn’t a journalist, but I’m sure he’s played one once. And if he hasn’t yet, he probably will—hopefully a dogged investigative reporter who uncovers a scandal that goes all the way to the top, putting himself and his loved ones in mortal danger. That seems to be how most of these things go.
Anyway, Hill merits inclusion in this column because his Twitter spat is with a journalist: CNN’s Don Lemon, who took the feud off the Internets and onto the airwaves, appearing on this morning’s edition of Starting Point to discuss the following “incident”:
Gawker has a nice, short summary of the incident, including video of Lemon’s CNN appearance this morning, which he begins by blaming a celeb-happy cab driver for making him miss his flight before accusing Hill of “treating me like the help.”
DECISION: @JonahHill loses points for resorting to “insulting” @DonLemonCNN by calling him a “12 year old girl” and deleting his tweets the day after, but he still wins. Maybe he didn’t recognize Lemon or maybe he just didn’t want to do a meet and greet after coming out of a hotel bathroom. That seems pretty reasonable to me. Lemon’s (over)reaction isn’t.
Sara Morrison is a former assistant editor at CJR. Follow her on Twitter @saramorrison.