Nightline, the respected talk show that’s been on TV for over twenty years, has succumbed to the ridiculous whims of the Internet, and is now developing a show that will feature Twitter integration. Apparently Twitter users who follow @nightline will be allowed to chime in with their opinions on the topic of the day, and the Nightline team will respond in real time.
First, this is a stupid idea. Second, it’s a ridiculously stupid idea. Third, I’m an avid Twitter user, and I still think it’s a stupid idea. Why? Consider this:
@twitteruser845 i think ur wrong abt Bushs overseas policies
Bashir: Well, when you look at (insert long, rambling monologue here) … and that’s why I think he made a mistake there regarding Iraq. Oh, I … I see that you’ve been trying to get my attention for the past five minutes as I spoke. Let me read what you said, here … ah. You weren’t talking about Iraq at all, but South Korea. Uh huh. Well … maybe we should just move on.
Seriously, what kind of meaningful conversation can be had when one person — or in Nightline’s case, three people — aren’t limited to 140 characters? One of the best things about Twitter is that its users are forced to be brief, and therefore their statements are more directly to the point.
And with over a million users to choose from, Nightline is bound to have an extremely difficult time picking out which one deserves the on-air mention. Enough of that, and their Twitter viewership is going to dramatically drop down in size, as they start feeling that their voices aren’t being heard.
And finally, the name of the new show is going to be NightTline. How the hell do you pronounce that? Night-tee-line? This whole thing just reeks of an attempt to cash in on the Latest Thing … and Twitter isn’t even that! It’s been around for years! Trust me: nothing good can come of this. I need to go tweet about this.
Comments
kyle
May 13th, 2009 - 2:52:36 PM
lol, i kinda want to see this now. sounds fun :)
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