Twitter + Weiner: the world's saddest tweiner?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 20 June 2011 11:25

Opinion and Analysis

Tweeners are normally those between the ages of around 8 and 12, but Tweiner is a nickname for the twittering former Rep Weiner, whose twittering ways caught the attention of an unknown band of Twitterers keen to trap America's chief political Twit and fully expose him.

If you're any kind of public figure, someone, somewhere is watching what you're doing, which is part and parcel of the nature of being a 'public figure'.

The problems start, however, when you go from being a public figure to a pubic figure - and especially so when that happens by your very own hand, as it did with former Rep Anthony Weiner, a man that revelled in taking pics of himself in his underwear, and others that showed off Weiner's wiener to a wide world of Twitterers.

Now comes the news from the NY Times (and re-printed in the Sydney Morning Herald) of a group of 'self-described conservatives' that had noticed Anthony Weiner's twittering ways, long before the current scandal engulfed the US Congress' most newly-famous photographer (and ex-politician).

Although all the details can be found in the article linked above, the short version is that an unnamed group, whose identities haven't been verifiable (and are expected to be fake), attempted to engage Weiner in some subtle conversation, presumably to see how much of himself Weiner would expose.

The Twitter group that was targeting Weiner called itself the #bornfreecrew, with two Twitter users employing fake names in an attempt to tempt Weiner into responding, while also contacting other people Weiner was following in an attempt to engage them in conversation, too.

One of the fake Twitter users even tried to get Anthony Weiner to be their 'prom date', although without success.

If there's one thing the Weiner Tweiner can breathe a sigh of relief about, it's that no tweeners have been identified as being the target of Weiner, something that would have made an already extremely serious situation even more devastating, although there's no suggestion that the Weiner Tweiner twittered tweeners.

Ultimately, unless you're a porn star, or are particularly out there, so to speak, there's definitely no place for your or anyone else's wiener on the Internet.

Anthony Weiner is a great example, especially when you're a married man, let alone a politician, of what happens when you start flashing your wiener to the world willy-nilly.

Shame on you, Mr Weiner, and good on you for, after much denial and lying, doing the right thing and finally resigning. It's clearly the very least you could have done, and unless you decide to take up Mr Larry Flynt's offer of a job, we hope it's the last time the world sees Weiner's wiener - in any format.