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What Cory Booker's Sharing Now: Newark Mayor Spreads News of Former Aide's Indictment

BY Nancy Scola | Friday, February 19 2010

Credit: Cory Booker/Facebook

Not for nothing is Newark's Cory Booker considered the second most "social" mayor in the country.

Booker -- an active, frequent, and creative Twitterer -- has argued, quite convincingly, that social media can help the city of Newark confront its considerable "reputational problems." Via Twitter, Facebook, and fake feuds with Conan O'Brien, Booker has been aggressive about pushing out into the world an alternative narrative about the city he leads.

Credit: Cory Booker/Twitter

Booker's latest social media move: getting in front of a story that broke late yesterday about a former Deputy Mayor Ronald Salahuddin had been indicted on extortion and bribery charges in the context of city contracts he awarded.

The story has gotten little play, really, and where some mayors might have chosen to enjoy its low profile, Booker has gone another route: drawing attention to the corruption episode and using it as what we might call a teaching moment. "Big violation of my and public trust today regarding one of my former employees," Booker tweeted out at 4pm EST yesterday to his 1,077,000 Twitter followers -- or four for every actual resident of Newark. "Stay tuned."

Later in the evening, Booker tweeted out a pointer to his Facebook page, where he had posted a high-def two minute video on the Salahuddin corruption charges and what they meant for Newark. (Booker has 20,000 Facebook fans.) The middle of the clip is a segment from a press availability Booker gave on the indictment. But bookending that footage is Booker, looking directly into the camera, offering what comes across as a more human and more personal response to the unpleasantness of his former aide's indictment.

"I hope that was helpful," Booker says of the news footage. "And what I really want to say to residents of the city of Newark and supporters of our city is that we cannot let anything make us cynical or jaded. That we have to believe in who we are, and in the greatness of Newark and the collective. There are going to be tough days." But, he says, as he wraps the Facebook video, "I believe in us."

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