Social Media a Great Way for Legislators to Communicate (But They Better Do It Nicely)

A recent Facebook posting by a Massachusetts legislator slamming a colleague got him into hot water when the local newspaper picked it up. Probably a worthy lesson to legislators everywhere. Sometimes you might want to "sit a couple plays out" and relax before you use social media:

State Rep. Denis E. Guyer, D-Dalton, posted comments on his Facebook page about state Rep. William "Smitty" Pignatelli, D-Lenox, attacking Pignatelli’s comments about committee assignments doled out last week on Beacon Hill. In an article printed in The Eagle and posted on BerkshireEagle.com on Saturday, Pignatelli said the Berkshires fared poorly, with none of its four delegates awarded a committee chairman’s seat.

Guyer, who was given a seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee and named a vice chairman of the Joint Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture, blasted Pignatelli on Facebook, a massive social networking Web site that has become one of the most popular online destinations.

Pignatelli’s "such an idiot," Guyer’s Facebook posting read. "I have been biting my tongue for four years about his BS … came to a head today with what he said in that article. The happy horse crap ‘we are all one in the delegation’ facade is O V E R."

Hat tip to The Thicket.

0 thoughts on “Social Media a Great Way for Legislators to Communicate (But They Better Do It Nicely)

  1. I couldn’t disagree more. The problem with EVERYONE is that they are too politically correct and nothing happens. We live in a state of fear. Employees from supervisors, supervisors from company VP’s, VP’s from senior management, senior management from the Board, the Board from Wall Street (not the shareholders), Wall Street from Government, and finally, Government from the people who put them in power.

    This is not a personal attack but it’s time that everybody stands up. I can’t post what I really think because it might get picked up and wouldn’t want people to know that I mean grow a pair.

  2. There’s a lot to agree with Bill’s comment above. If “calling somebody out” was more common, we’d behave better to begin with. Instead, there’s a tendency to try to get away with something… and unfortunately we’re all paying the price for each other’s misbehavior.

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