Still, there's a bigger lesson here about the explosive organizing potential of social media. Take an aggrieved population, add a well-known figure who speaks to their pain, throw in tools that allow immediate, self-reinforcing communication, and presto! You've got an instant insurgency!
This time, it was just the Sports Guy and the Timberwolves. Next time, the stakes could be far higher. If Twitter and Facebook had been around in 1969, maybe Norman Mailer would have been elected mayor of New York.
To read the "Don't Quote Me" blog, go to thePhoenix.com/medialog. Adam Reilly can be reached at areilly@phx.com.
Related:
Red all over, Will the Globe survive?, Die another day, More 
- Red all over
If there's one group of professionals whose job insecurity rivals that of the Detroit auto worker, it's the men and women who make America's newspapers.
- Will the Globe survive?
What would Boston's media landscape look like without the Boston Globe ?
- Die another day
Now that the New York Times Company and representatives of the Boston Newspaper Guild, the Boston Globe 's biggest union, have agreed to a deal that will keep the paper alive (more on that in a bit), the great unanswered question becomes: what, exactly, does the Times Co. plan to do now ?
- The New York Times Co.'s baffling Globe strategy
It's no mystery why the New York Times Co. threatened, two months ago, to shutter the Boston Globe unless the paper's unions provided $20 million in concessions.
- The Big Hurt: Durst pantsed, Michaels smooshed
"This isn't a reunion, this is a comeback," quibbled the red-hatted irrelephant in a BBC interview.
- Tweet-Fighting Man
Is Twitter driving the ongoing political crisis in Iran?
- Of Twitter and Cassettes
There has been plenty of breathless reporting on the goings-on in Iran. And rightly so. The protests surrounding the recent presidential election are historic — the heavy use of Twitter and social networking technology a breakthrough.
- Beat the Tweet
Warm weather is supposed to be accessorized by lackaday, by a breezy sensibility best enjoyed with a frosty tall boy in one hand, the sloppy product of a back-yard barbecue in the other. Instead, I find myself struggling to balance my beer between my knees and my overstocked paper plate on my thigh as I furiously poke at my BlackBerry.
- The Times Co.'s super-potent silent treatment
In an earnings conference call last week, Janet Robinson, the president and CEO of the New York Times Co., had choice words — make that one choice word — for published reports on the Times Co.'s attempts to unload the Boston Globe.
- Dr. Lovemonkey: TMI?
About four months ago, my wife and I found out that the 19-year-old girl who lives next door (and who we have known since she was a little girl) had a Twitter account. It became a guilty pleasure for us to occasionally look at this account to see what was up in her life.
- Big story
On July 30, the New York Times revealed that David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez — heroes of the Red Sox' 2004 and 2007 World Series wins — are on the (supposedly) secret list of a hundred-plus major leaguers who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in 2003.
- Less
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Media -- Dont Quote Me
, Internet, Boston Newspaper Guild, Boston Newspaper Guild, More
, Internet, Boston Newspaper Guild, Boston Newspaper Guild, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Janet Robinson, Twitter, Scott Helman, Science and Technology, Technology, Media, Less
