RACHEL MADDOW and TWITTERGATE?

 Did Rachel Maddow Use Multiple Fake Twitter Accounts to Boost Her MSNBC Show?

Seems TWITTER has now suspended a number of these bogus Twitter accounts.- More Here

Meanwhile over at MESSNBC they have released a non disclaimer disclaimer on Twitter:
"RT @msnbcPR Spam on #maddow hashtag is not coming from the show or any producers. Have reached out to Twitter to investigate"

Notice that non denial denial? The tweets are not coming from the "show" or "any producers". Uh Huh. But, they might be coming from an outside company hired to put those Tweets out there.
Hmmmm it seems somebody out there in media journalism should be grilling Vivian Schiller NBC' Chief Digital Officer about this? Why? Here is exhibit A:

"If you ever find yourself awake past the witching hour, sleeplessly scrolling Twitter, take comfort in knowing that NBC News chief digital strategist Vivian Schiller is right there with you.
“I’m up for two or three hours in the middle of the night,” Schiller told me. “But my saving grace is Twitter.”-Niemanlab

After screwing up as head of NPR she was saved from corporate oblivion by the now departed Steve Capus NBC News President. It's not hard to believe Twittergate may have originated somewhere in the offices of 30 Rock to bump Maddow's rating on twitter. Somebody in media journalism needs to check this out. I'm talking to you Brian Stelter! 


BLOG UPDATE: It seems other MSNBC shows have been using similar multiple messages from Twitter accounts to boost the profile of Morning Joe and The ED SHOW on MSNBC.  MORE HERE

 

OSAMA IS NOT THE ONLY THING THAT'S DEAD!

I can not remember the last time I picked up and read an article from the New York Times.  A new documentary called PAGE ONE is coming out that looks at one year at the New York Times. Looking at the trailer I think it will show the denial that is occurring in much of the old media organizations. News organizations like the New York Times are in the same place network radio was in the nineteen fifties. They can't believe that they are not relevant anymore. When someone like Sohaib Athar can tweet about the raid on the Osama Bin Ladin's compound Sunday before a New York Times reporter based in Pakistan has even woken up and picked up their phone the handwriting is on the wall. Hell, I was blogging in China on a boat floating down the Yangstee River in 2005. I even think I got a question from Brian Stelter (now at the New York Times) about it when he was a student at Towson University and writing TV Newser at the time. Between, bloggers, tweets and You Tube one can get a pretty good idea of what is going on without the bias of the Liberal editors getting in the way. Every individual can decide what news is relevant for them and not have to wait for the 10:30 editors meeting at the New York Times to make that decision. That is a good thing for society but, unfortunately not for old media organizations like the New York Times.