Keep Tweets on Twitter

Sometimes it's hard to tell what you've missed. What I mean is, every once in a while media outlets  subtly sneak a feature into the news and we as viewers fail to realize the complete ridiculousness of it until it occupies the space on all media outlets everywhere. From the headline, I'm sure you can guess I'm talking about twitter.

Let's be clear, I have no issue with twitter. In fact, when used correctly it can be a powerful tool to mobilize protests,  links fans with their favorite shows, and be down right hilarious. (I'm talking about you @seinfeldtoday)

But where twitter annoys the living hell out of me is when half-brained new producers think it's a good idea to showcase people's twitter feeds as part of the news. That might sound harmless enough, but think for a moment: why the hell should you care what random people around the world think of today's current events. Do these people has some special insight into the story you're watching? Do they have some expertise they can add that will put a very complex social issue into an easy understand perspective. No. They do not. Most of the time these tweets have all the intelligence of someone sneezing into their sleeve... only to realize they aren't wearing a shirt and now have an upper arm covered in snot.

Guess was: I don't give a damn what @iJaYDoT thinks of Ireland voting to legalize same sex marriage. So don't put his opinion up on my TV, call it news, then complain that you don't have time to cover other meaningful stories.

And I also don't care what celebrities have to say either. If I'm watching a story about ISIS taking up new positions to cut off the Iraqi army, I don't care if the Kardashians thought it was heartbreaking. They have the right to tweet about it. Have an opinion about it. I just don't think it deserves 30 seconds of news coverage.

And I know I like to beat up on sports journalists, but ESPN is the worst at this. I love how they use social media to find the best plays from the most obscure sports all around the world. It's the type of stuff we would have never been able to see just a few years ago. But I really don't give a crap what every sports fan on earth thought of that impossible buzzer beater Stephen Curry hit to send the game into overtime. Especially when most of the tweets featured on the show say things as smart as: sweeeeet! I also don't care what athletes in one sport, think about achievements of athletes in another sport. So Lebron thought Messi's goal was awesome. Good for him. If I follow Lebron I saw that tweet. If not... I don't give a shit. Keep it off my TV.

It's time we take back our airtime. Tell your local news outlet that you don't think your neighbors tweets belong on the air. Or, just tweet them. Hey... they might even put your tweet up during the 6pm broadcast!!