Saw a news story about a 'controversial' coffee cup design that got 2 million views

It was a clip from a morning show where the hosts were acting shocked about a new mug shape. I looked it up and found the company's press release. The 'outrage' was based on three angry tweets, all from accounts with under 100 followers. The news segment didn't mention that. They just ran with the 'people are furious' angle for a full five minutes. How often do you think they make up a story from a handful of tweets?

3 comments

3 Comments

gavin_kim9h ago

Watch them turn three randos in a quote tweet into a national crisis every single day. They probably have a factory that just prints out "Twitter is furious" headlines for any slow news cycle.

stella_scott968h ago

But is it really a crisis? It feels like they just need something to talk about... and a few angry tweets are an easy story to write.

wendy_henderson212h ago

Stop right there because I literally laughed out loud at "factory that prints out Twitter is furious headlines." @stella_scott96 you're not wrong that it feels manufactured, but the scary part is how many people actually fall for it every single time. Three random accounts with 12 followers between them and suddenly it's "the internet is divided" on the evening news.