General

Anatomy of a Twitter smackdown

Political operatives and journalists take to Twitter to verify the source of a quote in the latest Liberal attack ad

Earlier this morning, National Campaign Chairman for the Conservative Party Guy Giorno questioned a quote attributed to Stephen Harper in a Liberal attack ad. The quote read, “It’s past time the feds scrapped the Canada Health Act,” which appeared in an August 26, 2010 article in the Globe and Mail. Giorno pointed to David Somerville as the source of the quote, which CBC reporter Laura Payton later verified by digging up the source document: a June 1997 issue of Bulldog. The following is a selected timeline of the tweets that unfolded between dueling war rooms and fact-hungry reporters.

http://twitter.com/#!/cpc_giorno/status/59982830750539776

http://twitter.com/#!/cpc_giorno/status/59994441963941888

http://twitter.com/#!/cpc_giorno/status/59999069505986560

http://twitter.com/#!/laura_payton/status/59999232425332736

http://twitter.com/#!/liberal_wire/status/60009793695387649

http://twitter.com/#!/cpc_giorno/status/60017430621204481

http://twitter.com/#!/cpc_giorno/status/60016344015450113

http://twitter.com/#!/CBCTerry/status/60015164543614976

http://twitter.com/#!/cpc_giorno/status/60016129397108737

http://twitter.com/#!/liberal_wire/status/60016145389977600

http://twitter.com/#!/jasonlietaer/status/60016759058604032

http://twitter.com/#!/laura_payton/status/60031174394912768

http://twitter.com/#!/kady/status/60033226424586240

http://twitter.com/#!/wicary/status/60033695192584192

http://twitter.com/#!/cpc_giorno/status/60048484665004032

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