Let’s be crystal clear. We are not defending a president-elect for tweeting about “Saturday Night Live” performances or whomever has most recently tweaked his sense of decorum. However, there is reason to defend or at least accept Donald Trump’s use of Twitter now and in the future.
In 1948, Harry S. Truman was the first presidential candidate to broadcast a paid political ad on television. Truman pioneered the White House telecast, but it was President Franklin Roosevelt who was the first president to appear on TV from the World’s Fair in 1939.
John F. Kennedy was considered the first true television president, commanding TV’s use as a visual and news media. The Nixon-Kennedy debates were won in large part due to viewers’ impression that Nixon was presented in an unflattering light.
The president’s radio address began in the 1940’s and continues to this day, but now is found in the form of a weekly video blog.
History is full of firsts when new media and politics collide. The president-elect is logging a first by choosing Twitter as his primary means of communicating with constituents.
Up to this point, the president-elect has limited his messaging with the American people to rallies and Twitter. If you take away the latter, the future president could go silent. History has told us that silence from political leaders is the worse sound of all.
As long as we’re trying to put a positive spin on what is still an uncomfortable reality for many, a Trump Twitter-filled presidency could have its advantages. Carefully choreographed press conferences with every syllable vetted for the masses has been the norm for decades. They are also boring, lack emotion and sometimes hide truth in political-speak.
A Trump Twitter seems to capture raw emotion and a real sense of his position on issues, at all hours of the day and night – unfiltered. Unfiltered raw emotion often results in equally emotional apologies, but perhaps our past presidents have been too sterile when they speak.
Maybe, just maybe, a president with a Twitter feed will give us more realism in this new age of social media immediacy.
So at least for now, maybe it’s best we don’t scorn the social media channel, but rather the messenger for his 140 characters. And if Twitter is the media of choice, then welcome the tweets because otherwise we may have nothing at all.
About Paul Weber, EAG CEO
Paul Weber is the CEO and chief strategy officer for EAG Advertising & Marketing, an advertising and marketing firm dedicated to helping evolving companies learn and use big brand strategies. He never has and never will go within arm’s length of marketing a political candidate. Ever.