News Flash: There Are Mean People on Twitter, Especially If You're a Celeb

Though I personally have only been called some version of an idiot and a moron a handful of times on Twitter (yes, I know I'm jinxing myself), if you're a celebrity who dares to wade into the social media pool, it's sage advice to don some protective gear because the water can get really choppy.

Jimmy Kimmel called on some big name celebs who've been directly trashed on Twitter and asked them to read some of the mean Tweets that they'd received aloud. Will Ferrell poetically opted to read them while sitting on the can.

The result is a funny video which reminded me of Tina Fey who, after winning a Golden Globe award for best comedic actress, called out some of the folks on the internet who'd been nasty to her. Loved that speech.

What Do You Think About TV 'Spoilers'?

Spoilers are a major pain in the butt when you write, tweet or Facebook about TV shows because it’s inevitable that someone, somewhere will have DVRed the program about which you’re sharing your sparklingly insightful observations. And some of those folks may loudly object to any revelation, even about an already-aired TV program, no matter how witty your remarks might be.

If you’re blogging about a TV show -- even if you plaster a big, fat old “spoiler warning” at the top of your entry as I'm wont to do -- there are people who'll still go nutty because they want everyone to keep the TV episode information under wraps and not put anything out there that that might inadvertantly wreck their surprise when they finally get around to watching the show. (This is why, after Sun and Jin drowned on Lost, I chose to put the photo of them AFTER the jump so people looking at the blog wouldn't holler that I'd spoiled the episode of "The Candidate" by posting their image under the headline, "Lost's 'The Candidate' Made Me Cry, Dammit".)

If you’re live-tweeting or Facebooking a TV show as you watch it, people who either a) DVRed the program or b) live in another location where the show hasn’t yet aired, are likely to blast you for being an East Coast elitist spoil sport.

For example, the day AFTER the massively hyped, buzz-worthy Lost series finale, I tweeted and blogged (this blog is syndicated on Facebook via Networked Blogs) about the finale and later read status updates from people threatening to de-friend/unfollow people who posted anything resembling a Lost spoiler because they hadn’t seen the finale yet.

So when I read Jay Black’s post on TV Squad (Full disclosure: I used to blog for them) entitled, “TV 101: The Spoiler Police Need to Calm Down,” I wanted to stand up and cheer. After offering up his own definition of spoilers – which he said include the endings of movies (for which you have to pay) and "inside" information about what’s going to happen in advance of it being aired on a TV show – Black, a pop culture/TV writer, issued a few of his personal rules about spoilers including these:

-- “One a show begins to air, I can discuss it in real time. If you live on the West Coast, stay off of Twitter and Facebook. Sorry, it’s the price you pay for great weather and loose marijuana laws.”

AND

-- “After the show is finished, anything and everything is on the table. If you don’t wish to hear about it, I suggest you unplug your Internet connection and move into the Unabomber Cabin.”

A few weeks ago, I hadn’t been able to watch a pair of DVRed episodes of 24. I knew that I’d be going on Twitter, Facebook and pop culture/TV web sites which would likely be discussing the shows before I’d be able to watch them and that I might come across information about the unseen episodes. And I did. I learned that Renee Walker had been killed before I saw it unfold on my DVR. But I wasn’t angry because the whole world doesn’t have to grind to a halt and NOT talk about already-aired 24 episodes just because I had too much on my plate for a couple of weeks. That’s the way it goes sometimes. You make choices.

Black feels the same way:

“The Internet shouldn’t be subject to your personal whims. The Internet exists for only three purposes: To spread information, the (ahem) intellectual discussion of that information and hardcore balloon stomping fetish porn. To ask everyone to tiptoe around the first and second of those pillars just because you DVRed Dexter and haven’t gotten around to watching yet is pure selfishness.”

What do you think about “spoilers” about TV shows? Do you have a problem with people live-tweeting/Facebooking shows or blogging about them once they’ve aired? Have you had episodes “spoiled” for you?

For When You're in Need of a 'Mad Men' Fix: Character Tweets on Twitter

I’ve become increasingly entertained by the folks who are creating a dynamic version of fan fiction in the form of the Twitter feeds for various Mad Men characters.

The non-AMC-related Twitterers write tweets for Don Draper, Betty Draper, Sally Draper, Gene Hofstadt’s ghost, Roger Sterling, Peggy Olson, et al (nearly 70 Mad Men-related "characters" tweet, according to MSNBC) have genuinely embraced their characters, the show’s plotlines and have a savvy sense of humor. The interactions between the characters have provided me with chuckles as they pop up on my Twitter account throughout the week.

Take a look at some recent tweets posted by various Mad Men characters over the past few weeks:

Don Draper, Twitter handle: @_DonDraper (one of a couple Don Drapers on Twitter)

@Roger_Sterling is acting like a teenager. Apparently that’s what makes him happy.

@genes_ghost I’m going to have to get rid of that old helmet.

Maybe it’s time to take @Roger_Sterling out for another oysters-and-martini lunch.

Sally has been crying for days now. I don’t know what to do with her anymore.

Happiness is a billboard on the side of the road that screams reassurance that whatever you are doing is okay. You are okay.

Betty Draper, Twitter handle: @bettydraper

Do let me know if you see @sally_draper sneaking cigarettes again @PreppyPrincess!

Had another dream about Daddy.

Stop it @sally_draper! There is no such thing as @Genes_ghost!

Addressing envelopes for the Junior League.

Tying a scarf.

I’m an orphan.

Taking meatloaf out of oven. Topping it with ketchup.

Gene Hofstadt, Twitter handle: @genes_ghost

Wondering if I can convince @robert_draper to hide the helmet in @Gene_S_Draper’s room or in the trunk of the Lincoln.

I don’t know if I like that @FaintingCouch. Reminds me of my mother’s parlor. Plus it blocks the hearth. What if you want to light a fire?

I turned the TV on to static last night, and @sally_draper came down and put her hands on the screen. I think she was sleepwalking.

MORE AFTER THE JUMP:

Suburban Mom's Political Fix: Iranians Protesting Election Results

The events which are unfolding in the wake of the disputed Iranian presidential election are being documented by a multitude of web sites, from streams of tweets from Twitter, videos from YouTube and stories from news organizations which are struggling to adhere to the recent Iranian crackdowns on the media's transmission of video from the streets. It is, in a word, stunning.

I've been watching coverage of the five days' worth of election protests on cable news, on video feeds from news web sites and have read stories from newspapers, as well as tweets from Iran. Several things about this historic struggle to grab hold of democracy -- and a vote tally that actually bears a resemblance to an accurate count of the ballots -- struck me:

Silent Protest

Imagine people walking through the streets -- thousands and thousand of them -- there to protest an election they believe has been taken from them. And they walk in silence, holding their hands up in the peace sign, trying not to raise the ire of government riot police with whom some protesters have violently clashed over recent days. The video below captured the silent protest:



Years Ending in "9"

While reading a column in the Boston Globe by Jeff Jacoby today -- which compared the reaction of President Obama to the unrest in Iran, to President George H. W. Bush's muted response to the democratic protests in China 20 years ago ("In reacting to the recent Iranian election and to the protests that erupted after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the runaway victor, the Obama White House seems to be taking a page from the elder Bush's 1989 playbook.") -- I found it oddly intriguing that the Chinese uprising was in 1989 and the previous unrest in Iran occurred in 1979.

"The Revolution Had Begun."

The Boston Globe has on its web site a dispatch from Tehran from a participant of one of the large protests. It's riveting reading:

". . . [T]he crowd did not consist of young men, but housewives, seniors, businessmen wearing suits, even children. There was blood on many of them. They were walking downhill towards the Interior Ministry, determined and in force. The wave that had taken over Iran and partied in the streets into the morning for the last few weeks was now an army on the move. As I stood in place trying to figure out what I was seeing, I noticed shopkeepers shutting down and joining the flock. People were also chanting on the sidelines, 'down with the dictator,' referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, while the crowd chanted 'join us proud Iranians, join us, join us.' The crowd was growing by the moment."

The Daily Show Goes to Iran

Further blurring the lines between news, entertainment and journalism, Comedy Central's The Daily Show is sending the same guy who cut the New York Times to shreds last week, to Iran in a series of reports called, "Access of Evil."

Jon Stewart had a brutal take on how CNN has been covering the breaking news in Iran, given the restrictions placed on American journalists by the Iranian government. Mocking their reliance on "unverified material," Stewart also skewered the Iranian government's election tallying techniques.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Irandecision 2009 - CNN's Unverified Material
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

Image credit: Getty images via the Huffington Post.

'West Wing' Title Credits: The Obama Version

Yet another one of the reasons I'm starting to actually like Twitter . . . I learned that someone has posted this video on YouTube where the opening credits from The West Wing were changed, with the actors' names replaced by the real names of the folks from the incoming Obama administration.

That reminds me . . . I want to Netflix the earlier seasons of this show. I really liked it when it first aired.

NYT's 2008 Buzzwords

When 2008 is but a mere memory, what buzzwords will it have yielded that actually last? The New York Times ran a lengthy piece this past weekend offering a list of 38 buzzwords and phrases the authors say were made popular this year, including many politically-oriented terms, given that we just experienced a historic presidential election season.

Among the political terms:

-- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spawned three on the list: Caribou Barbie, "hockey mom" and "lipstick on a pig." "Maverick" was also on the list, but mostly because John McCain used it liberally about himself and then applied it to Palin.

-- Barack Obama was credited with spawning a whole host of derivations of his name -- both positive and negative -- ranging from "Obamanation" to "Obamacize and "Obamafy." His playful gesture with his wife Michelle was called a potential "terrorist fist jab" by a Fox News Channel anchor, not in jest.

-- "Joe" was there for a multitude of reasons, from Joe the Plumber, to "Joe Six-Pack" and "Amtrak Joe" (as in Joe Biden who took Amtrak to and from work).

Apolitical buzzwords included:

-- "Phelpsian" as in something having to do with Olympic gold be-dazzled swimmer Michael Phelps, or his insanely calorie-ific diet of a bazillion calories.

-- "Sister Wife," first heard by many on HBO's Big Love, but mentioned on this list because of the news stories spawned by this year's raid on a Texas polygamous compound.

-- Any form of the word Twitter (tweet, Twittering), of which I'd never heard until this year, unless it had to do with a bird.

Any words or phrases you think should've been on their list but wasn't? I'd toss into the mix: "Bailout" (self-explanatory), "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantsuits" (Hillary Clinton's nickname for her followers) and "bleep" in honor of the embattled Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich.

Image credit: New York Times.