Yesterday, the RFT reported on a tweet by Lewis Reed, president of the St. Louis Board of Alderman, that the popular dueling piano bar Jive and Wail was going to be opening a downtown location. Mr. Reed went so far as to give an address (13th & Washington), a size (8700 square feet) and an opening date (July 2010).
Now comes a tweet from the Jive and Wail saying not so fast…nothing is a done deal. And for now that is pretty much all there is to it.
Not the biggest Twitter spat I have ever seen, but it is interesting to note how quickly information can spread on Twitter. I also think it is worth noting the kind of authority Twitter has seemingly gained over us. How many tend to readily accept tweets as facts? I know I am sometimes guilty of that. And in this case, Mr. Lewis’ tweet sure looked factual, so it can be hard to tell.
Do you verify tweets before sending them out or re-tweeting them? Let me know in a comment.
(And I mean, verify where applicable, we will take you at your word that you really ran 10 miles last night and that you weren’t actually on your couch watching American Idol.)
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Interesting. Now that I think about it, I rarely do any fact checking before I retweet information. If it seems really outrageous (Sandra Bullock and Jesse James seperated? Yes, supposedly it's true), I will probably look into it, but for the most part I trust what I read- especially from a source like this one. I'm sure had I read Lewis' tweet I would have believed it… and retweeted it.
-Danielle, Atomicdust
I don't check them either as a rule…I know I have occasionally, but in general, I don't. Even though this one here really isn't that big of a deal, I hope it will get me thinking about checking facts before I pass on something that is perhaps more significant.