The issue the public have always had with celebrities and politicians is that the only time we hear them speak are interviews and press conferences. As such everything we hear from them has been filtered through speech writers, advisers etc. As such we have no idea what these people actually think. Well that’s what it used to be like anyway; now we have Twitter. For those unaware Twitter basically allows you to send a message to, erm, you know what? I can’t do it. I have no idea how to explain Twitter in a way that won’t get a response of “why the hell would you want to do that?” so I’m gonna let this website do it:
http://www.methodshop.com/gadgets/tutorials/twitter-explained/index.shtml
Some celebrities have taken to twitter like a duck takes to water (just slightly less wet); Stephen Fry being the most obvious. Some however have taken to it like a duck that’s allergic to water (Aquagenic Urticariac). And some; well some are Gillian McKeith. For those unaware; Gillian McKeith is the woman who goes on tv and insults people because their poo smells bad. Now somebody on Twitter mentioned how they were reading Ben Goldacre’s book Bad Science and had got to the chapter where the author talks about McKeiths questionable credentials. This sent the poo-lady into a rampage, each tweet getting more and more insane. It’s at this point that shit got strange; she deleted the offending tweets and then started talking in the 3rd person. She then said
“Do you actually believe this is real twitter site for the GM?”
Accusing herself of being an imposter. Which would be smarter if it wasn’t for the fact that her twitter page was linked to from her official website. So all signs point to her backing down and trying to weasel her way out of responsibility. Which makes the wording of that tweet all the more annoying. It’s the “the GM” part which annoys me. If you refer to yourself as “the insert name here” it makes you seem like an idiot. Not quite as much as inventing qualifications and being obsessed with poo; but still.
She’s not the only person who has fallen foul of twitter though. Those of you who paid attention know that Ed Milliband accidentally called Blockbusters “Blackbusters” last week. This was apparently really really important news; important enough that The Sun put it on the front page. Making it the first innocent typo to ever headline a national newspaper (I hope it is anyway; if not then I’m very disappointed about the state of journalism in this country). I find it weird that this was deemed important. Surely there’s more important things that happened? Maybe someone somewhere saw a giant bear. Maybe someone saw a piece of cheese in the shape of Spongebob Squarepants. ANYTHING is more important than a typo surely? It’s not the worst mistake a politician has made. It’s no even the stupidist thing a labour mp has tweeted. That goes to Stuart MacLennon who referred to the elderly as “coffin dodgers” and said “God this fairtrade, organic banana is s**t. Can I have a slave-grown, chemically enhanced, genetically modified one please?”.
Now THAT’S how you destroy your career on Twitter.
Tags: ben goldacre, gillian mckeith, Stuart Maclennan, twitter, twitter mistakes
