Richard Holbrooke has died.

Richard Holbrooke has died.

By Jamie McIntyre Monday, December 13th, 2010 9:51 pm
Posted in On Media

Did you hear the news?   Veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke has died after collapsing on Friday, and undergoing surgery to repair his aorta.  Sad news.  Where did you hear it?   In the old days it would have been on the radio, or maybe from someone who heard it on the radio.  Or maybe you wouldn’t even know until you picked up tomorrow’s newspaper, and read it on the front page.

But tonight as I sat writing on my MacBook my Tweetdeck lit up like a Christmas tree.   As near as I could tell Jake Tapper of ABC broke the news.  I don’t “follow” Jake Tapper, but his breaking news tweet was immediately re-tweeted by the New York Times’ Brian Stelter, who I do follow.


Then, like fans doing the wave at a major sporting event, the tweets began pouring in in undulating batches.  First a wave of bulletins.  Followed by a wave of remembrances.

Twitter is a broadcast medium, and everyone’s a broadcaster.  I have a mere 452 followers, but I re-tweeted CNN’s first report.   CNN has 3.6 million followers, which according to the numbers I’ve seen is roughly 25 times its audience in prime time for TV.

There’s a reason CNN and the other cable networks don’t do a basic “traditional” newscast in primetime.  Fewer people watch it, because fewer people need it.

And when news does break in primetime, it’s well, a little awkward.  Witness this Facebook status update from a former CNNer:

Ouch.

The reality is a big story was breaking.  I’m a news guy.  And I felt no urge to turn on my TV.  I am flooded in information and if I want more, I can just click on any of the hundreds of links sent my way.

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William December 15th, 2010 at 4:30 pm

But I would always count on CNN to cover the news. When there is “breaking news”, it has always been CNN. On Nov 4, 1989, when the network station interjected between shows “Wall comes down. Details at 11.”, I immediately went to CNN, and have ever since.

jamiejmcintyre December 16th, 2010 at 3:51 pm

Ah, yes, but in 1989 CNN was all-news all the time. Now it’s part-news, part of the time.

William December 17th, 2010 at 11:58 am

Better than FoxNews, which is mostly opinion, most of the time.

topmouse December 22nd, 2010 at 1:13 pm

Richard Holbrooke was my favorite “diplomat” as he was pretty much a “straight-shooter” whether the truth hurt or not. The people he had to deal with knew what he was. Most other diplomats (and politicians in general) would almost always answer a “yes” or “no” question with anything except “yes” or “no”. I always referred to these people as “weasels” and we have too many of them. I liked Holbrooke last words in the Pakistani hospital as something like “you must stop this war”. I think the country is much worse off without him and now, perhaps, the Nobel Committee will award him a “peace prize” after he has been nominated seven times.

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