Things Better Left Off Twitter: The Funeral Of A 3-Year-Old Boy

OK, we’ve seen some questionable uses of Twitter in the past, but this is a new low. While covering the tragic death of a 3-year-old boy killed when a car accident sent a truck careening into a Baskin-Robbins, a reporter at the Scripps-owned Rocky Mountain News decided to supplement his coverage by live-tweeting the funeral procession.

An excerpt of the cringe-inducing twitter stream is below. Memo to newspapers: We know your business is dying, and you’re desperate to seem hip to the latest Internet trends. But this is not the way to do it.

via (Fimoculous)

Article provided by: AlleyInsider

If you are not sure what Twitter is, here is the description given by Wikipedia:

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, email or through an application such as Twitterrific or Facebook. For SMS, four gateway numbers are currently available: short codes for the United States, Canada, and India, as well as a United Kingdom number for international use. Several third parties offer posting and receiving updates via email.

My Opinion:

I use Twitter to keep up with some friends. Twitter is not a source to relay news. I am extremely appalled that a reporter found this action ok. I know the newspaper industry is dying, but this is not the way to make an online presence. I hope this reporter was punished/fired.