Kara Swisher

Recent Posts by Kara Swisher

Damn the Tweet-pedoes, Full Rupe Ahead!

[UPDATE: Wendi Deng Twitter account referenced below is a fake one — see more details below.]

Oh joy — my boss is on Twitter. I guess I have to watch myself now.

Or not!

In fact, News Corp. potentate Rupert Murdoch, who happens to own this Web site (and more!), just inexplicably joined Twitter.

And, like any newbie, he has already had to retract a tweet.

The controversial 140-character-or-less utterance from @rupertmurdoch: “Maybe Brits have too many holidays for broke country!”

He quickly deleted the saucy tweet, apparently at the behest of his wife, Wendi Deng, who publicly tweeted to him on her Twitter-verified account, as if she were in private instead of chatting globally: “RUPERT!!! Delete tweet!”

Then, to all, she tweeted: “EVERY1 @rupertmurdoch was only having a joke pROMSIE!!!”

[UPDATE: My mistake: It was confirmed by Twitter that this Wendi Deng Twitter account was a fake one, even though it had been previously verified and marked so prominently by the online communications company. Whoever is writing the tweets also said they were spoofing Deng. I had relied on that verification as accurate, since I had assumed Twitter had confirmed both at the same time. Obviously, I am a dope and should not have.]

But Murdoch, already infected with the classic Twitter and-just-one-more-thing disease, then noted: “I’m getting killed for fooling around here and friends frightened what I may really say!”

Oh, joy, indeed — as I am counting on it.

Murdoch, controversies and all, has the kind of socially attuned personality tailor-made for Twitter, even though many point out that he has not been a fan of the Internet and interactive media in the past.

While I am no expert on that, that’s actually not been my experience in my encounters with the mogul at many of our D: All Things Digital conferences and elsewhere. In fact, he seems keen on understanding online media, even if it most certainly is not his first language, which has been print.

In fact, Murdoch’s tweets are listed as coming from his Apple iPad, which I have seen him carry like a precious jewel, another part of what became a truly interesting and complex relationship with Steve Jobs in the years before he died. (And it also appears as if Murdoch took his Twitter profile photo — posted here — from said iPad, judging from the angle.)

So let’s hope he keeps up the lively patter going forward — unlike many Twitter celebs who trail off after an initial burst of activity — as he pokes and prods the Twitterverse. A place, it should be noted, he once famously said would not make a good investment.

Still, so far, he seems to like the product, and will only more so, if he sticks to yet another tweet: “My resolutions, try to maintain humility and always curiosity. And of course diet!”

Because curious is what Twitter is all about — we can only hope the snaps of his dinners are not far behind.

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