Posts Tagged ‘cablegate’

The WikiLeaks controversy continued to dominate news links shared by bloggers during the week of Dec. 20-24, while a column by Mashable writer Vadim Lavrusik predicting 10 major developments in news media for 2011 accounted for the most Tweeted news links, and the most-watched news and politics video on YouTube was footage from the Dec. 14 shooting at a Florida school board meeting, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism’s New Media Index.

Julian Assange and company accounted for 35 percent of news links shared via the blogosphere, followed by: the repeal of the don’t ask, don’t tell policy in the U.S. military, at 15 percent; Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez defending his plans to impose broadcast-like regulations on the Internet, at 9 percent; an article from The Washington Post about an environmental study that found probable carcinogen hexavalent chromium in the drinking water of 31 out of 35 major cities examined, at 7 percent; and at 6 percent, another Washington Post contribution about the actions by the administration of President Barack Obama relating to Guantanamo Bay.

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Keith Olbermann‘s self-imposed suspension from Tweeting lasted about as long as his MSNBC-imposed suspension from hosting Countdown with Keith Olbermann, as the talk-show host returned to Twitter with this Tweet Sunday:

And we’re back. Tweeting will resume tomorrow. Good night and… etc. (Avatar dates to 1971 at Yankee Stadium).

At the time of this post, Olbermann had Tweeted twice more, including this promise to go into more details about the controversy that drove him to temporarily quit the microblogging service in the first place:

FYI there will be a tweet (and some retweets) later today about the #mooreandme spectacle

Olbermann reacted to extensive criticism via the microblogging service over hosting filmmaker Michael Moore on Countdown, during which Moore said the controversy over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was overblown, and for retweeting a link from Bianca Jagger that dismissed the charges against Assange and possibly revealed the identities of the women who accused him of sexual misconduct.

Keith Olbermann is suspended again, but this time it’s from Twitter, not MSNBC, and this one was self-imposed.

According to The Huffington Post, Olbermann reacted to extensive criticism via the microblogging service over hosting filmmaker Michael Moore on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, during which Moore said the controversy over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was overblown, and for retweeting a link from Bianca Jagger that dismissed the charges against Assange and possibly revealed the identities of the women who accused him of sexual misconduct.

Olbermann’s “final” Tweets, for now:

Approximately 3 p.m. ET:: I’ve discovered that I am accused of being a rape apologist in part because I didn’t remove the quotes from the word rape in a retweet

Minutes later: I’ll thus unblock all blocks, wish you all a Merry Christmas and I’ll suspend this account until/if this frenzy is stopped.

Bloggers shared the most news links about the deal between President Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress on tax cuts, while the WikiLeaks saga accounted for the most Tweeted news links, and the most-watched news and politics video on YouTube was an interview with Thomas Gottschalk, host of German game show Wetten Dass (Bet It), after 23-year-old contestant Samuel Koch attempted to jump a car using spring-loaded stilts known as “kangaroo shoes” and suffered major injuries, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism’s New Media Index for the week of Dec. 6-10.

The tax cut represented 15 percent of news links shared via the blogosphere, and it was followed by: an editorial in The Washington Post criticizing movie Fair Game, at 13 percent; Pope Benedict XVI agreeing to use a solar-powered popemobile, at 12 percent; and at 10 percent apiece, WikiLeaks and a BBC article about conservationists in China successfully mating giant pandas which could allow them to be reintroduced into the wild.

“Cablegate” made up 33 percent of Tweeted news links, and it was followed by: Twitter at 19 percent; Google at 12 percent; Apple at 8 percent; and Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg agreeing to join the “giving pledge” created by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to donate most of his wealth to charity, at 7 percent.

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has more important things to worry about, like trying to secure his release on bail from prison in Sweden. There is no celebrating in the office of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Lady Gaga is not dancing. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have one less thing to be smug about on Comedy Central, and ditto for Glenn Beck on Fox News Channel. President Barack Obama is dealing with more significant issues, like war and unemployment. Steve Jobs is gearing up for the release of the second-generation iPad. The Chilean miners are probably just happy to be alive. And, much like Assange and Obama, the unemployed American has far more significant issues to deal with.

What do all of those people have in common? They all finished ahead of Mark Zuckerberg in voting by TIME readers for its 2010 Person of the Year, yet the Facebook co-founder and CEO rebounded from finishing No. 10 on the readers’ poll and impressed the magazine’s editors enough to be named TIME 2010 Person of the Year.

From the explanation penned by managing editor Richard Stengel:

Like two of our runners-up this year, Julian Assange and the Tea Party, Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t have a whole lot of veneration for traditional authority. In a sense, Zuckerberg and Assange are two sides of the same coin. Both express a desire for openness and transparency. While Assange attacks big institutions and governments through involuntary transparency with the goal of disempowering them, Zuckerberg enables individuals to voluntarily share information with the idea of empowering them. Assange sees the world as filled with real and imagined enemies; Zuckerberg sees the world as filled with potential friends. Both have a certain disdain for privacy: In Assange’s case because he feels it allows malevolence to flourish; in Zuckerberg’s case because he sees it as a cultural anachronism, an impediment to a more efficient and open connection between people.

With the controversy over WikiLeaks dominating the news for the past couple of weeks, many people have questioned how hashtags like #wikileaks and #cablegate are not showing up on Twitter Trends. Twitter claims it has done nothing to block any WikiLeaks-related hashtags, with Carolyn Penner from Twitter’s public-relations department writing on the Twitter Blog:

Since Twitter first introduced the Trends feature in the summer of 2008, one frequently asked question has been “Why isn’t X trending?” This question has come up around a variety of subjects, from #justinbieber and #adamlambert to #flotilla, #iranelection, and #demo2010.

This week, people are wondering about WikiLeaks, with some asking if Twitter has blocked #wikileaks, #cablegate, or other related topics from appearing in the list of top Trends.

The answer: Absolutely not. In fact, some of these terms, including #wikileaks and #cablegate, have previously trended either worldwide or in specific locations.

Sometimes a topic doesn’t break into the Trends list because its popularity isn’t as widespread as people believe. And sometimes, popular terms don’t make the Trends list because the velocity of conversation isn’t increasing quickly enough, relative to the baseline level of conversation happening on an average day; this is what happened with #wikileaks this week.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange may be cooling his heels in a London jail, but he will likely be heartened by the news that with four days left in the voting, he is atop TIME‘s voting for Person of the Year.

Voting ends Sunday, and the magazine will name its Person of the Year Wednesday, Dec. 15.

The top 10, as of Wednesday:

1: Julian Assange

2: Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan

3: Lady Gaga

4: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert

5: Glenn Beck

6: Barack Obama

7: Steve Jobs

8: The Chilean miners

9: The unemployed American

10: Mark Zuckerberg