With its recent Tweet about Texas Democrat Wendy Davis, the Associated Press seems to have given up all pretense of the journalist’s “nonpartisan” creed by tweeting the hashtag of left-wing activists along with the news.
Democrat State Senator Davis made a name for herself at the end of June by holding a new Texas abortion bill hostage by launching a filibuster that thrilled the hearts of pro-abortion activists in Texas and across the country. Her supporters began to use the Twitter hashtag #StandWithWendy to support her on that social media outlet.
A hashtag is a short code meant to help Twitter users search for Tweets with a specific message. It can be used for humor, advertising or political activism. Activists of all sorts use hashtags to spur like-minded Twitterers to action. But it is an activist’s tool, to be sure.
Yet now the AP is using that activist’s tool appearing to throw its support behind the left-wingers supporting Davis.
Here is how the AP Tweeted about its latest story out of Texas:
Texas Sen. Wendy Davis, who filibustered abortion bill weeks ago, gives closing remarks: https://t.co/z6Q7L7NaOc -JM #StandWithWendy
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 13, 2013
The question remains, should a supposedly nonpartisan news outlet use activist’s hashtags in their own Tweets about their news content?
The tweet was since deleted. Apparently the AP realized using activist’s memes was a bit less than journalistic.
LifeNews.com Note: Warner Todd Huston is an editorial columnist whose work is featured on numerous web sites. He has also written for several history magazines, and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture.”
