The Twitterverse went nuts over one news story this week.
Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe posed as a prostitute and a pimp, respectively, in an attempt to expose the dark side of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).
Giles and O’Keefe traveled across the country to various ACORN offices asking for advice on how to obtain a loan to start a brothel. While at each office, Giles and O’Keefe secretly videotaped their conversations with the ACORN employees.
The duo released their videotapes on BigGovernment.com, and the tapes soon picked up traction on mainstream media outlets and the web.
Just before noon on Thursday ACORN came in at the number three spot for Twitter searches that day. A Twitter search for ACORN yielded 30 new ACORN-related posts every few minutes. Many of these tweets were about the House of Representatives vote to withdraw government funding from ACORN.
- RedDevilRio: @daleeff3 Wait?!? Defunding ACORN Unconstitutional? How in hell was FUNDING them constitutional in the first place?
- ItzOnlyTru: How sad they stop fundin 2 Acorn cuz of sum bs sting This country loves 2 keep the poor, poor. I truly hope there is a God out here listenin
- GloriouslyDark : David Price D-NC, voted against defunding #ACORN WRITE HIM! VOTE HIM OUT! #tcot
Some tweets sought to connect Obama to ACORN.
- Scream4Freedom: Al-Qaeda doesnt need to attack the USA . obama has acorn to do that for them.
A few tweets used the ACORN tag to publicize a completely different agenda.
- StephMc777: Less Than Perfect Credit? Get Approved Instantly! http://bit.ly/rrOSs #kanyewest #jay #acorn #musicindustrywants #secondprevies #credit
By Friday, ACORN no longer held the number three spot in Twitter searches. It did not even make the list of top searches. Instead of 30 new posts every few minutes, there were 5 or so new posts every few minutes.
Tweets still discussed the House’s decision from the previous day as well as Obama’s connection to ACORN.
- DavidTheroux: House votes 345-75 to deny ACORN federal funds http://tinyurl.com/mcw7fn #TCOT #TLOT #Liberty #Revolution #Teaparty #YAL #C4L
- constitu_nation: RT @JohnSWright49: I bet ACORN wished BO was still their Liar…I mean Lawyer.
The vast majority of the tweets on both days expressed a political bent. Conservative Republicans seemed to be using the scandal to criticize the current presidential administration and Democrats in general. A few tweets did, however, pop up with an openly liberal tone, attempting to discredit Giles and O’Keefe’s sting operation.
No matter what the content of the post, one thing quickly becomes clear. In an age where technology bombards us faster than we can process it, Americans have lost their attention span. The headlines you see when you wake up quickly become yesterday’s news.
ACORN, while still on the minds of many, is not even today’s news according to Twitter. The Twitterverse has found something else to go nuts over.