This is the last in an accidental series of posts related to web and social media coverage of the ongoing Detroit mayoral scandal. The whole thing has been a mild distraction to my regularly scheduled blog outings, and a major one for the entire region. Like most of Metro Detroit, I’d like to move on.
Since we last left off, Kwame Kilpatrick accepted my ‘friend’ invite on Facebook. I debated whether to challenge our embattled mayor to a friendly game of Scrabulous, but thought it best to leave well enough alone. He hasn’t changed his status update since my last post, so, uh, I suppose he remains resolute.
He’s been good enough—again, assuming it’s really Kilpatrick—to allow commentary from all sides in on his “wall”. Among the more eloquent posts since formal charges were filed:
i support u no matter what i believe everybody deserves a second chance we are only humans and people make mistakes but we have to learn from it if god can forgive us then we can forgive u too
hey mr mayor keep ur head up and tell those muthaf*****s 2 stay out ur business!!! and get them some u kno wht they say missery loves company!!!!! rise above these!!!
d**n my n***a Kwame you in some deep s**t 4real….
Kwame!!! I agree with ****- keep doin’ what you do! The sooner you get booted out of office, the better!
True Detroiters have the back of someone who is bettering our city on a day to day basis. I am a True Detroiter. Regardless of what they say they can not take away your faith.
Kilpatrick has also joined the Facebook groups “Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick Supporters” and “Operation Support Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick”, presumably started by his allies. He’s added more friends, more photos of himself, and more Facebook applications—which allow him to hang with his constituents, judiciously or otherwise. His “mini-feed” details some rather questionable activity on Facebook, given his permanent residence under the media microscope, but so be it. It’s his reputation, and his alone.
Also since my last post, he finally did start blogging back. Well, sort of. I’m assuming his handlers launched Detroit Justice Fund, a WordPress-powered blog full of official finger-wagging and lean on any feedback. It’s, um, a start. I guess.
Whether he actually tried to solicit you and me for his legal defense fund on Craigslist remains to be seen. I’ve only found one posting which has thus far been flagged for removal.
Then there’s kwamekilpatrick.com, which probably has the mayor wishing he’d bought his own domain name when GoDaddy spammed him about it years ago. You can read up on your favorite text messages, relish in lowbrow video, trade barbs in threaded forums and even download your own Kwame ringtones. It’s not quite Web 2.0, but proves that old school web plays one helluva role in social media, if you can Digg it.
Well, I’ve about had it with this subject, fascinating as it may be. Kilpatrick’s legal team and City Hall will have a hard enough time battling the press onslaught without having to worry about all these pesky blogs and social media “haters”. And they still haven’t fessed up on the official city website. Sheesh.
There’s a lesson for my class somewhere in all of this. They’re a savvy bunch, very much in tune with the local scene. They’re also aspiring web designers, a few of which I find on Facebook and other fronts on occasion. They’re making sense of the web’s impact on our society. Heck, they’re trying to figure out the web as a whole.
I’ll let you in on a little secret, being a self-important professor and all: I’m still trying to figure it out myself. Scrabulous, anyone?
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