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The torture of Anthony Weiner
By Dave Winer on Wednesday, June 01, 2011 at 11:22 AM.

I just watched a long press conference with Rep Anthony Weiner about the photo that was sent through his Twitter account.  #

The press reports aren't clear exactly what kind of message he sent.  #

The tech press, one would assume, would be anxious to know what actually happened. Seems like this is a story TechCrunch or GigaOm could help with. Someone should put a real reporter on this story.  #

Anyway, you always wonder what you would do in his shoes. #

I don't know, but I wouldn't fight it in front of TV cameras. I'd fight it where the offensive act took place, on Twitter. Keep a Tumblr going (nice NY tech success, good politics) and link to it from the Twitter account.  #

Might as well use the crisis to build your follower count. #

A picture named hope.jpgThen start posting pictures of things that matter. Like Mitch McConnell boasting how he's going to kill either Medicare or the world economy. That's some real pornography, not the kind where you have to use your imagination. :-) #

And yes, interspersed between all the serious stuff, remind people that you didn't send the picture, and you're not going to press charges, and by the way I changed my password, and when I'm having guests over I turn off all the computers, and I don't leave my iPhone lying around. #

Whatever happened, it's only a big deal to the extent that it shows how stupid we can be with our computers. Someone was stupid here, and possibly mean, and some of the responsibility belongs to the Representative. So you have something to apologize for. Apologize. #

There's an art to using Twitter. It's a fantastic political platform and it might be possible to fight these battles by going direct to the public, instead of trying to route through cable TV.  #

PS: Anil Dash says the Soup blog on Tumblr is doing serious reporting on this story. #




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