As cool as the pale wet leaves
of lily-of-the-valley
She lay beside me in the dawn.-Ezra Pound
Tweeting to a large audience from @StockTwits, we sometimes get strong reactions.
When posting links, our intent is to surface content that is original, valuable and thought provoking.
Our own subjective point of view is not really relevant. We will post content with which we disagree, agree or have no opinion.
We give the reader the benefit of consuming content intelligently through his or her own lens and reaching conclusions. Its never about supporting a cause.
Sometimes, there will be readers who get upset, lash out or unfollow us because of something we have retweeted. That is the price we pay for holding those who click on our links in high regard. We can deal with it and consider it a small price to pay.
Further, we view the content itself as independent of the author to a great degree. Once the work is published it stands apart from the creator of it.
Pound (quoted above), who grew increasingly unstable as he aged, supported Mussolini. He was a fascist.
Does this make the poem, by itsef, any less beautiful?
In November, the Associated Press published revised Social Media Guidelines for AP Employees. The section titled “RETWEETING” reads:
Retweets, like tweets, should not be written in a way that looks like you’re expressing a personal opinion on the issues of the day. A retweet with no comment of your own can easily be seen as a sign of approval of what you’re relaying.Example: RT@jonescampaign smith’s policies would destroy our schools RT@dailyeuropean at last, a euro plan that works bit.ly/xxxxx.These kinds of unadorned retweets must be avoided.
Journalists must be able to grant their readers the freedom to misinterpret.
If they do not, then they will never be able to communicate up to the vast majority responsible and smart enough to get that ideas are not a reflection of the person or establishment representative who is passing them along.
It is unfortunate that a large media organization is attempting to throttle the curative voice of its journalists.
Likely, it is a result of the disruption caused by the internet and new publishing platforms which foster autonomy for content creators.
It is a part of the same controversy Bill Keller stepped into criticizing The Huffington Post and soon after stepping down.
Traditional news media is threatened by new technology and the media it supports and so instead of processing, integrating and employing, it resists, clenches and retaliates.
Such a posture will only disillusion and then alienate the most talented voices.
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