The social networking site Twitter is often dismissed as vacuous and only suited for people with Attention Deficit Disorder. But it can be an interesting place. Sometimes you notice a tweet made by a total stranger that incites you to reply back to them. An interesting -- if concise -- conversation sometimes ensues.
That happened today. I decided to respond to a tweet sent by someone sympathetic to the Buddy Roemer campaign. As I wrote in a blog post earlier this week, Buddy Roemer is a former Louisiana governor running for the Republican nomination -- a fact virtually unknown because he has gotten almost no attention from his party or the media.
The exchange we had was brief. But I thought it was an interesting conversation (or perhaps start of a conversation) on what influences the media to cover or not cover a story and what role the media plays in shaping public opinion. Wrapped up in that conversation was the occasional joke and informality characteristic of Twitter.
I've assembled the various parts of the conversation below (sometimes I slightly switched the order in which the tweets were written to better reflect the intended back-and-forth). Take a look and feel free to share your thoughts on the topics we discussed. And feel free to follow me on Twitter.
