Twitter in a Teacup III: Could this be Progress?
BY Dave Witzel | Sunday, July 13 2008
When I finally hit "publish" on Friday's post, "Twitter in a Teacup Part Deux: The Speaker Has Spoken," I figured I could safely head for the beach free from concern that anything exciting would happen before I made it back inside the beltway on Monday. Boy was I wrong.
The Gray Lady picked up the story today (p. A21 in the National edition). Falcone chose to emphasize the partisan angle writing "But some Republicans, like Mr. Culberson and Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House minority leader, are crying foul. They say the proposals are an attack on free speech and fear that Democrats will seek more restrictions." Otherwise, the old media got the story pretty much as it has unfolded on twitter.
However, they missed the big plot twist. On Friday Representative Culberson (R, Houston) posted a response to Speaker Pelosi's letter from the day before. In it, without any partisan posturing, he makes an entirely reasonable suggestion. Quoting his letter:
With good reason, there are no restrictions on our ability to conduct radio, television or newspaper interviews or conversations in our official capacity, and these interviews are often done using our office computers or telephones. These interviews can and often do appear in the same publication or broadcast alongside political or commercial advertising.
There is no logical distinction between communications using these old media outlets and communications using new media on the Internet. Therefore, I am recommending that our House rules treat communication over new media outlets on the Internet the same way we treat communication over the old, traditional media outlets. That is, without any restrictions except for common sense, including no video or photographs from the House floor.
What's more, Rep. Culberson said he shouldn't have made this a partisan issue. In an interview with O'Reilly's Tim O'Brien, Culberson said "I made a mistake in even mentioning Democrat or Republican... the community has helped me understand to keep the partisan labels out of it, that's good advice which I have taken to heart." He also gives props to twitterer @technosailor for helping him understand how to focus his attention.
Anyway, the storm I had downgraded from a kerfuffle to a mere brouhaha and fully expected to blow away out to sea has taken a constructive turn. Rep. Culberson wants to "bring the House of Representatives into the 21st Century and help shine sunlight into the operations of the People's House." That's something we can all get behind.
Oh. And here's a picture of the beach.
[Thanks to scriptingnews for the Fail Whale image and Rob Kohn for the beach whales.]