We’re all becoming increasingly familiar with “citizen journalists.” Depending on how you see it, they can be defined as any unreliable thrill-seeker with a smartphone, or a valuable counterpoint to mainstream media. But now, to further muddy the waters, it seems we have entered the era of the “journalist citizen.”
Earlier this month, Octavia Nasr, CNN’s senior editor in the Middle East, lost her job, apparently over one tweet. “Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah,” she wrote. “One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.” That was it: 20 years of employment dashed in 140 characters. “We believe that her credibility in her position as senior editor for Middle Eastern affairs has been compromised,” said a senior CNN vice-president in a widely publicized internal memo.
No matter who you are, having an opinion is a risky business. It always has been. We daily weigh our impulse to honesty against common sense (look, I’ve got friends who have taken to wearing high-waisted pants). Personally, I’m no good at staying my hand when tantalizing spats are unfolding mere inches before my snoot. But the advent of social media has not only made it easy to publicly blurt out a half-cooked opinion – it guarantees it immortality.
Twitter, with its immediate accessibility and complete transparency presents a special hazard. Careless tweeting has felled many a user, from politicians to aspiring employees (“Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work,” wrote “theconnor” hours before the offer was rescinded.) And as Ms. Nasr has since acknowledged herself, when the Middle East is your area of expertise, it’s probably best to use more than 140 characters to make your point.
— Jason Logan
Many companies have policies telling employees how to conduct themselves on social media. Intel’s guidelines, for example, reads “Post meaningful, respectful comments -- in other words, no spam and no remarks that are off-topic or offensive.” For the media, this issue has been particularly thorny, particularly considering they champion both impartiality and free speech. The Washington Post a year ago came under fire for cautioning its employees to express no biases when using social media, saying “nothing we do must call into question the impartiality of our news judgment.”
Understandably, measures like these have led some people to wonder where the long arm of their employer ends. But most businesses would rather risk overreaching than dealing with the ire of the sort provoked by Ms. Nasr’s tweet.
“How DARE you honor Fadlallah -- murderer of 250+ American Marines. You should be ashamed of yourself!” “Supahjew” tweeted in response, while another faction of Twitter users, disgusted by what some felt was CNN’s disregard for free speech, began a “twibbon” campaign in her support. “CNN is looking for Israeli cheerleaders, not free thinkers. They don’t deserve a journalist like you,” “Twalra” wrote.
Was Ms. Nasr an irresponsibly opinionated member of the mainstream media? Or was she, as Michael Arrington of Tech Crunch believes, providing a refreshing break from the illusion of unbiased reporting
Down deep, most of us know that news outlets are staffed by people who hold opinions and biases -- just like we all know, however much we wish it not to be so, that our parents have sex.
Ms. Nasr’s failing was in leaving the bedroom door ajar, so to speak. But CNN needs to remember that what the public puts its faith in is not the reasoning of any one individual, but in the institution as a whole, a team of people of differing backgrounds and views working toward a common goal: to reveal the truth.
All tweeters are human (well, except the spambots). Even at our best, we sometimes stumble. A human error deserves a human response rather than a sweeping bureaucratic gesture meant to appease the angry masses. If we all lost our jobs for missteps the size of Nasr’s, only a few would be left standing -- maybe just the spambots.
Follow Lisan Jutras on Twitter @lisanjutras
