June 3rd / 5th
"Weiner Roast : Battle of the Bulge"
Last week, a photo of a man's underpants replete with erect bulge, was
posted on Twitter in such a way as to appear that it had been sent by
Democrat Congressman Anthony Weiner to a female college student and perhaps to a
stripper named Ginger Lee. The photo was then re-tweeted by a conservative
blogger and went viral in short order.
Weiner was immediately and understandably besieged by the news media who
simply wanted to know two things: Is it really Weiner in the photo?, and did
Weiner tweet the photo to one or more women? Weiner, normally an
articulate firebrand on the House floor, turned into a babbling idiot. His
incoherent rants didn't come close to answering anything, and the more he babbled,
the "testier" he became. At one point, the Congressman lashed out at a
reputable journalist, calling him a "Jack Ass" just for asking a simple
question. Twenty four hours later, Weiner sat down with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, and
though his demeanor had improved, his answers had not.
Asked if he had sent a photo of himself in a bulging brief to Ms. Lee,
Weiner responded, "I don't know who the woman is. I followed her for a
moment, and then someone tweeted me, telling me I was following someone in that
industry, and I immediately - not wanting to cause trouble for her or me - I
- (he does not finish the sentence). Blitzer then asked, "Are you sure the
photo is not of you?" Weiner then said, "We're doing everything we can to
try and answer that question. We're doing an investigation, but I want to
caution you that photographs can be doctored. Photos can be manipulated, can
be taken from one place and put in another. So this is not a federal case.
This is a hoax, and people should treat it that way".
Note to Congressman Weiner: if it's not a Federal case, then who exactly
is investigating it? If it's your office or anyone hired by you, then it's
Federal. Second, how can you not "know" a stripper, but you "follow her"?
Third, a man knows at all times what color and brand of underwear he has on,
and if his crotch was ever photographed while wearing that particular
brief.
Thus, one wonders why the distinguished House member doesn't just identify
his own member, and move on. The longer this drags on, the more it will
affect his credibility. Speaking of which, Weiner concluded the Blitzer
interview with this grand revelation, "When your name is Weiner, people do
weiner jokes about you on the internet all the time. Unfortunately, people get
hacked, and identifications get blurred all the time". All the more reason
that Weiner should have never become involved with Twitter. In fact,
warnings about the dangers of social media have been plastered all over
television and the web for several years.
On May 5, 2009, Techno savvy columnist Elliot Silver warned, "One of the
dangers of Twitter is that if your account is hacked, other people may think
you are posting things that you aren't". Weiner is a grown man, and was
well aware of these dangers, but somehow just couldn't resist the lure of
tweeting, and the allure of "following" a stripper. It's almost as if the
Congressman was mesmerized by social media, and became lost in a parallel
universe where nothing was out of bounds, and every image became a blurred kind
of reality. Hey, wait a minute. That is consistent with a study by
scientists at the University of Southern California back in April of 2009, who
concluded that, "streams of information provided by social networking sites are
too fast for the brain's moral compass to process, the result of which is
that Twitter can numb our sense of morality, and even make us indifferent
to human suffering".
So there you have it. Social media can be fun, but increasingly, it can
also become irritating, disruptive, and dangerous. Weiner's case
notwithstanding, I once again call upon Congress and the FCC to regulate the
internet, the same as it does radio and TV broadcasting. Under my proposed reforms,
the origin of every post would have to be identifiable, and no one would be
allowed to blog anonymously. Penalties for violating either condition would
be (pardon the expression) quite stiff. Ironically, I might now have an
advocate in Congress for such reform. I just hope Weiner will get serious
about all this, and stop being such a hot dog.
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