Kinder On Hostage Tweets: It Was “Important To Notify The World”

The Missourian has a really interesting story this morning with different perspectives on the use of Twitter and social media in yesterday’s purported hostage situation. Here’s what the Lieutenant Governor had to say:

Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder was one of the first people to tweet about the incident, which he said he could see parts of out of his office window in the capital building…

He said he decided to tweet about it because he thought it was “important to notify the world.”

“This was obviously a public event,” Kinder said. “And being Twitter, it seemed appropriate.”

First, Kinder couldn’t see much from his Capitol office window beyond cars with flashing lights and law enforcement personnel moving around (I took the photo above less than a block from the corner from Madison and East Capitol – you can barely see Kinder’s 2nd floor window in the distance).

Second, why did Kinder feel that he was the best informed, best equipped person to “notify the world”?  And how was it a “public event”? 

In contrast, the journalists featured in the Missourian article demonstrate far more interest in making sure information was accurate before “notifying the world.”

• KOMU New Media Director Jen Reeves: “We put nothing on (Twitter) until we confirmed it, but I had an inkling of what was going on from what other people were saying on Twitter.”
• Columbia Missourian news and opinion editor Jake Sherlock: “We want to tweet stuff that we know to be true…So that’s why you didn’t see us Tweeting that there were shots fired because we never had confirmation that there were shots fired.”

It’s unfortunate that Kinder and his staff did not exercise the same judgment.