Like it or not, Twitter has become a part of the universal lexicon.  Tweeting has been popularized by techies, commentators, and celebrities.  It is almost impossible to get through a telivision show anymore without some mention of the 140 character mini-blogging platform.

Some of the members of the Shelby County Commission had a problem with Commissioner Mike Carpenter (@mikecarpenter1) tweeting during Commission meetings – giving constituents insight, updates and humor, real time.  Twitter is the source of a large portion of breaking news, and media outlets monitor public figures for news leads and scoops; so it stands to reason that Carpenter’s and other politicians like City Councilman Shea Flinn’s (@FlinnShady)   tweets would be monitored and reported on by media.

Maybe it rubbed some political folks the wrong way when the media picked up and reported some of Carpenter’s humor that reflected badly on one of the ‘burbs.  You can read the whole story in the Commercial Appeal.

Put to a Commission vote, freedom of tweets won out 6-4, so Carpenter’s followers will continue to be able to follow his meeting tweets.  The CA’s poll associated with their article Should members of the Shelby County Commission be allowed to tweet during meetings? was at 83% NO at the time of this post.

Related articles

• Mike Carpenter uses Twitter during Shelby County Commission debate on use of Twitter (commercialappeal.com)