Twitter is a platform frequented by young liberals and techy celebrities, or their PR companies, but New Years Eve welcomed a very interesting new recruit, no less then Britains most-hated OAP Rupert Murdoch.
Murdoch has previously referred to the internet as being “a place for porn, thievery, and hackers', but has obviously had a change of heart along with some practice in social networking since then.
His registration has caused quite a stir, at the time of writing this blog Rupert had 94,216 followers and counting, and yet he has only chosen to follow seven people himself, most of which are fellow publishing giants as well as Sir Alan Sugar who recently tweeted: "I wonder if my old pal @rupertmurdoch is eying up Twitter to buy or invest in it. He missed out on Facebook, and My Space.. not a great deal."
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescot noticed the arrival of Murdoch on the site and wittily tweeted: "Welcome to Twitter...@rupertmurdoch. I've left you a Happy New Year message on my voicemail!"
There have been more than a few gasps of horror since Rupert started tweeting, most of them coming from people who are keen to protect him, Rupert recently tweeted: "I'm getting killed for fooling around here and friends frightened what I may really say."
Despite the surrounding worries about giving the 80-year old free reign on such a public platform, there are suspicions that Rupert’s PR brigade are trying to turn around the rather negative public image he has made for himself of late, and friendly rambling across Twitter may be a good starting point.
So far, his tweets have ranged from everyday comments on life in NYC to his opinions on American politics and Obamas latest decisions. He also stupidly wrote “Maybe Brits have too many holidays for [a] broke country - after this week's Bank Holiday but deleted the post shortly afterwards, not before hundreds of users re-tweeted it, and adding the hashtag #murdochdeletedtweets.
Murdoch thoughtlessly joined Twitter whilst sunning himself on the Caribbean island of Saint Barthelemy, tweeting “Vacations great time for thinking. St Barth's too many people. Thoughts best kept private around here. Like London!â€
If Murdoch is trying to keep up the appearance of a blithering old man who has lost too many of his marbles to take full responsibility for the hacking scandal then this rambling on Twitter is surely a brilliantly direct way of convincing the public of this.
There is a new unverified account under the name of Wendi Deng, Murdoch's wife who has been attempting to curb Murdochs antisocial twitter behaviour, she says "Trying to explain to @rupertmurdoch that twitter is about following not just being followed. sharing and chatting and tweeting."
In the meantime, I encourage you all to add Murdoch to your feeds and sit back and watch as he digs himself hole after hole, it's going to take a lot more than a few thoughtful tweets to tidy up that man's public image.
Jessica Hazel
Writer, blogger and vintage trader.
http://creativepool.co.uk/jessicahazel
