Diamonds Are Forever - as Are Tweets to Robert Gibbs
They just discovered that if they tweet messages to him, the communications will end up in the federal archives in compliance with the Presidential Records Act.
"Just like any e-mails that I send or e-mails that I get are also archived for the future," explained Gibbs at his first daily briefing since his debut on Twitter over the weekend.
Any electronic communications in the presidential records archive are subject to subpoena by Congress or the courts. But Gibbs doesn't want that little fact to keep anyone from following his tweets or sending him replies.
"Just as anybody wouldn't fear sending e-mail, I don't think anybody should fear going on websites and reading what we write or responding to what we write based on the Presidential Records Act," he said. "It's simply intended to preserve the paper and electronic records of the administration."
He said that judging from some of the blunt criticism he's already received via Twitter, he doesn't think too many will be dissuaded from exchanging tweets.
In the 3 days since he quietly made his Twitter debut, he's accumulated over 22,500 followers. It's a very impressive start up, but doesn't yet put him in the same Twitterverse as Britney Spears who boasts 4.4-million followers and Ellen DeGeneres who trails closely with 4.2-million.
Like them, Gibbs has a "verified account." It means Twitter authenticated that he is who he claims to be: the White House press secretary.
Gibbs says he's still trying to get the hang of Twitter which restricts messages, or tweets, to no more than 140 characters each.
"I'm tying to figure out how to shorten," Gibbs said of his tweets. "There's a whole language...typing with numbers and symbols that have evaded me."
White House Tweets to Become Part of Presidential Records
At first, the White House computer system blocked access to social networks like Twitter, but Gibbs says the government "computer guys had to go do whatever the computer guys do" so he could begin to tweet.
One of his deputies, Bill Burton, has been on Twitter for months, mostly as a way of keeping track of the journalistic tweets of White House reporters. More recently, Burton has begun to tweet on behalf of the Press Office.
Burton was sitting next to Gibbs last Tuesday when President Obama made a surprise appearance in the briefing room to hold an unannounced news conference.
Burton had his laptop signed on to Twitter and he and Gibbs were able to listen to the president and simultaneously read the tweets of reporters providing live coverage of what Mr. Obama was saying.
"I was fascinated to watch it," Gibbs admitted. He then decided he would log on to Twitter himself.
He appeared under his own Twitter name, "PressSec," on Saturday afternoon. His first tweet was an appeal for guidance:
"Learning about "the twitter" - easing into this with first tweet - any tips?"
As word got out that he was tweeting, he started to accumulate followers. Many of them, like myself, quick to tell him it's not "the Twitter," just Twitter.
If you're still put off by fears that your tweets may forever become part of a federal archive, take consolation in that you can save all of Gibbs' tweets in your archive. Fair is fair.
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