One thing that MPs and candidates need to realise is that once something is on Twitter/Facebook/a website, it is out there for good. There is no ability to hide it. If you make a mistake, or do something you late regret, be that regretting what you did or the fact you got caught, own it. Don’t just try and hide what you have done.
Recently, Keeping Stock had a post about a tweet that Tamati Coffey sent. Keeping Stock got there first with the story, and I didn’t really feel there was anything I could add at the time. However, I had seen the tweet and opened it in a browser tab. I had also screen shot’d it to save, as I am planning on doing a post on Tamati’s Twitter presence in the future. However, as I was flicking through all the tabs I have open, trying to find something, I came across the tab of that tweet, and since I had restarted the browser recently it had reloaded the page. So it went from this:
To this:
So instead of owning up to what he did, apologising if he felt the need, and then moving on. He has tried to delete the evidence and pretend it didn’t happen. As the saying in politics goes, it isn’t the crime that gets you, it is the cover up. Instead of trying to hide it, reply to your own tweet and apologise. If someone calls you on it, apologise. Don’t delete it.
Young Tamati has made a few gaffes in the last few days. Someone needs to get in his ear and tell him to read everything he tweets at least twice before he commits it to the internet, because the internet NEVER forgets!
The nature of the comment Coffey (edit by admin for spelling) made and then the deletion are in themselves extremely revealing of the candidate’s character. Unfortunately I suspect that few people will actually note this, as I doubt that the majority of his potential voters are in fact on Twitter.
I found the ‘lol’ reference especially obnoxious given the abusive comment immediately preceding it.
Edit complete.
Sorry, should have been Coffey, typo – please edit for me Matthew