Incoming CNN president Chris Licht, a Connecticut native, says he will stop using Twitter on May 2, the day he begins at CNN.
Licht’s Tweet on the matter comes just a few weeks after the New York Times issued a new policy for its reporters making a Twitter presence optional not mandatory.
Twitter has long been the favored social media platform of journalism and for that reason has become one of the preferred tools used to issue statements, quotes, and other news by newsmakers, but it also has the effect of distorting reality by creating a closed feedback loop of journalists and their sources. That seems to be Licht’s main concern.
Whether he meant to or not, Licht’s announcement, when paired with the policy decision made by the Times, is likely to set off a major conversation on the topic in the world of news. Certainly on Twitter.
