Hurrah for tweets!

As you know, this president is the King of Twitterville. That is, he loves to send his thoughts to millions via his smartphone. If his breakfast is late this morning 45 million Americans hear about it over theirs. By way of his tweets.

He tweets insults to enemies and plaudits to supporters. He skirts fake news media to reach voters directly and unfiltered.

I like this development. If you hate him you should like it. If you like him you should like it. Because it does avoid the filters.

Seems to me that anything that gets us nearer to what any president is thinking is good. If he is a crackpot his messages will probably reveal it. If he is sensible, ditto. And if you don’t want to know you don’t have to read them.

Today’s “invasive” television is also a good service. By invasive I mean what you see when no announcer interferes.  If you watch C-span you know what I mean. C-span mostly turns on the cameras and lets you see and hear what is going on. Some of that kind of coverage gets into the all-news channels like CNN and FoxNews.

For example, this week Fox carried ten minutes of President Trump with various families. They were at the White House to promote the tax reform. Everything was somewhat scripted. But we could also see the president chatting informally with the families. In a sense, viewers were attending the get-together.

I like this because such get-togethers reveal things to onlookers. Most folks can spot phonies (in their eyes).  They recognize sincerity. Body language, gestures and facial expressions tell them more than words can.

This serves us better than media people telling us “The president was angry today in talking about…”  Or “The president was upbeat when he…”   Seeing and hearing for ourselves is better than colorings from news guys.

I recall one of Jimmy Carter’s presentations from the White House. Per usual he seemed scripted and stilted to me. He seemed cold and rigid. As well, various critics had told us this was his manner.

When the presentation ended he turned and discovered friends were seated behind him. A family from his hometown, I believe. He walked to them and chatted. Fortunately the mikes were on and viewers heard the conversation. They saw him enthusiastically embrace his friends. They heard more warmth in  his greetings than they ever heard in his speeches and press conferences.

For once Americans saw and heard their president as they would a neighbor or relative.

You may have seen references to England’s Boswell and Johnson. In the 1700’s Boswell became Samuel Johnson’s biographer. (Johnson was a famous literary figure.) Boswell became famous because he included Johnson’s thoughts in his coverage. He quoted him. He included remarks from Johnson he overheard. This was a radical new idea.

Earlier that century Samuel Pepys penned his diaries. He was an important figure in government. We prize his diaries today. Because he told us what he thought of events of the day, day by day. We can read his descriptions and thoughts of the Great Fire of London. As well as the Great Plague.

He also gave us his thoughts about mundane matters. Such as his new watch. And what went on in his house. Some of his diary reads the way Pepys’ tweets would if he was around today.

What we see and hear of our president is so much more than voters witnessed in the past. Everything they knew about their leaders came by way of third parties. Most folks never knew President Roosevelt used a wheelchair. Because third parties scotched photos and films of him using it.

In the 1960’s Britain’s royals did themselves a favor. For the first time they let cameras invade their privacy. Viewers heard their queen chat with family members, her prime minister and her servants. They went driving with their queen across her Balmoral estate. (And learned she drove a Land Rover!) They joined her and her family on a picnic.

There were no announcers saying “The Queen enjoyed her picnic with…” People saw her at the picnic and made up their own minds. As they would if they watched any other family on the beach.

Bottom line is that I like tweets. I’m all a-twitter over them.

       From Tom…as in Morgan.           

       Find Tom on Facebook. You can write to Tom at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com.