U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D.-NY)'s Twitter account sent a Yfrog picture of a man's (clothed) crotch to a female follower. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney announced his bid for president with a social boost. And former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin continued her cross-country bus tour/campaign rally that snubbed the press while honoring her social followers. As we said, strange week.
This weekly series picks out the week's top stories in the intersection of digital technology and politics.
However, his cagey responses to the press as well as his refusal to completely deny that it is him in the image have left many to question whether Weiner is just trying to cover an embarrassing mistake. The adorably named "Weinergate" drama is starting to die off but is one out of many recent gaffes on political social media accounts. The Columbia Journalism Review summed it up with a best-of roundup.
Romney Announces Presidential Bid
Mitt Romney announced his presidential bid Thursday. While the former governor made the announcement the old-fashioned way, he has been an avid user of social media, including a YouTube video about his exploratory committee and a tweet that read: "Making it official next week at the Scamman Farm in New Hampshire." You can find a breakdown of the bid as told by social media right here.
Palin's Run-Around
Sarah Palin's bus tour continues to blaze trails and snub the "lame-stream" media across battleground states and important American historical sites. The tour, which Palin calls a "family vacation," has more than once been called an unofficial campaign tour. While Palin has granted a majority of the press nearly zero time for tough questions — The New York Times ran this headline: "Palin Talks to the Media, For Three Minutes" — the former governor of Alaska has been surprisingly open on her social networks. The website SarahPAC keeps a running blog of her many stops, posting news, commentary and multimedia. Palin's official Twitter account has also been tweeting updates and links back to the blog posts so her fans can travel along.