"I'm past impeachment," Joshua Black wrote on Twitter. "It's time to arrest and hang him high." - Tampa Bay Times
A Republican candidate for the Florida House is calling for the arrest and execution by hanging of President Barack Obama for treason — but only after a trial. - TheNewCivilRightsMovement.com
Joshua Black, candidate for House District 68, made the comment in a Tweet Monday saying he was “past impeachment” and that “It’s time to arrest and hang him high.” - CBS Miami
Joshua Black, who’s running as a Republican for the 68th legislative district, Tweeted on Martin Luther King Day that Obama should be arrested and then “hang him high.” - ColorLines.com
Monday, he tweeted: - ThinkProgress.org
A Republican candidate for the Florida House of Representatives District 68 seat, Black tweeted, "I'm past impeachment. It's time to arrest and hang him high." The comment gained national attention after being brought to light in a Tampa Bay Times political blog. - BayNews9 (Tampa)
The problem with all these media articles is that Black DID NOT actually tweet that.
Here is the tweet in question:
"@civilwarcometh: @BrandonMArms @RedNationRising I'm past impeachment. It's time to arrest and hang him high. commieblaster.com" Agreed
— Joshua Black 2014 (@JoshuaBlack2014) January 20, 2014
Notice the quotation marks before @civilwarcometh and after commieblaster.com. That means the tweet was a quote. All Black added was "Agreed."
Here is the original tweet from @civilwarcometh:
@BrandonMArms @RedNationRising I'm past impeachment. It's time to arrest and hang him high. commieblaster.com
— stephen abner (@civilwarcometh) January 20, 2014
Black quoted this tweet in his own. Some publications did observe the difference and cite properly.
The remark that launched a thousand tweets came when Florida state representative candidate Joshua Black simply agreed with a comment from another user. - TheDailySheeple.com
When one of Black's followers tweeted, "I'm past impeachment. It's time to arrest and hang him high," Black simply wrote back: "agreed."- Complex.com
He tweeted in agreement with a fellow Twitter user (Stephen Abner) who called for the U.S. president to be executed. - Canoe.ca
Black's official campaign Twitter got behind a plan by one of his followers yesterday: - Gawker.com
Black didn't do himself any favors by re-writing the above tweet in his own Facebook post, confirming he believes in the idea. But again, my point is not to defend him. My point to show that many media members are still unsure how to properly cite Twitter.
This ambiguity is why many people and organizations attempt to put distance between Tweets they type and their quotes and re-tweets. Hence the common "RTs do not = endorsement" phrase in Twitter profiles.
Let me make this clear one more time: I do not agree with Joshua Black. Not one iota. However, I do think many media outlets attributed something to him that he didn't write, although it seems he has no problem claiming credit for it.
Stay tuned next week when I quote the Gettysburg Address on twitter. Feel free to say I wrote it!
