Tuesday, May 21 was a rough day here at the Weekly‘s headquarters in Tucson’s beautiful airport-adjacent area. Nothing unmanageable, but we were short two employees, the issue wasn’t exactly coming together on deadline day, I had somewhere I needed to be at 8 p.m. and my phone was buzzing every few minutes with an alert from Facebook that someone was posting on our wall about the March on Monsanto. And the same message every time: “ARE YOU COVERING THIS?” then a link to the event’s Facebook page. No context, no personal query, just relentless spamming of our social media space.
So, in a bit of a cranky outburst, I posted a request on our wall that the spamming stop. Yes, I had seen the messages and we’d make our decision on whether to cover the march or not. I also added “xoxo” to the end, because I tend to do that when I’m typing something on the terse side. I guess I think that’s funny.
That might not have been the best idea.
That post raised the ire of the March crowd, which was not terribly surprising or troubling, as they spouted off that I don’t care about the readers (not true), that the Weekly is taking money from Monsanto (not true), and that the “xoxo” part was unprofessional (probably true, but I also won an award three days before for a blog post where I suggested that Arizona’s economic woes could be solved by bringing the porn industry to our state, so unprofessional is a little relative in alt-weeklydom).
However, I did not expect to end up as a cautionary tale on how not to use social media on the journalism-focused blog Romenesko. But, on Wednesday morning, there I was, complete with some kind suggestions from total strangers who seemingly don’t read our paper that I should lose my job.
So, I probably should have just kept my mouth shut, closed off posts to our Facebook wall and just moved on. However, I’m not really sorry that I wrote that post (well, maybe the “hugs and kisses” part) and I’ll probably end up saying something on social media that doesn’t go over well again. I’m really thankful for the opportunity to interact with our readers on Facebook and Twitter, even the anti-GMO crowd, although I would have definitely preferred hearing that message once or twice and with an actual personal touch. What was oddly hurtful about this whole saga was when people wrote that I clearly don’t care about readers and their opinions. If you ask my wife, I probably care too much, checking Twitter far too frequently to see if someone mentioned the Weekly. I answer reader emails during dinner on occasion. I really need to improve my boundaries, but I’d rather err on the side of openness over the fear of being too interactive.
This article appears in May 30 – Jun 5, 2013.
It’s not necessarily a bad thing to make Romenesko’s column.
You’re the editor. Your job is to “edit” and “editorialize” and this is, thankfully, an Alt Newspaper. I see nothing wrong with your post. Right on as my Canadian friends say.
Refreshing to see something besides the mainstream media drivel!
The GMO crowd loves to find any cause that they can protest. Half of them do not know what they are there for. Almost like the anti-war crowd in the 60’s and 70’s. It is just an excuse to act out. While I agree with some of the arguments against Monsanto and their ilk, I like to eat. The recent Supreme Court decision will make any other protests mute. Their existence is all but guaranteed as a result and even their testing methodology will continue, protests will not stop them, only court action.
A bit of a generalization, regarding both the “march crowd” and the people who responded to the status in question.
Regarding the latter, while I support the labeling of GMO crops and would like Monsanto to fall into a deep hole and never see the light of day again, I did not go to the march and I did not post enthusiastically (nor several times daily) about it like some of my friends…I RSVPd for the event, realized the futility of it, and went to Phoenix ComicCon instead.
However, I did comment on your status, particularly remarking on your unprofessional “xo” bit. One need not be in a “crowd” simply because they disagree with the tone of your post.
I’m gonna guess that if an entire week goes by, and no one suggests you should lose your job, then you should probably lose your job.