In the midst of the Japan disaster and ensuing Fukushima nuclear crisis,  Twitter has just crashed.  The problem started in earnest (for me anyway) at approximately 12:05p PT.

It’s now 12:30p.

I’m getting this message when trying to access my Twitter page.

“Something is technically wrong. Thanks for noticing—we’re going to fix it up and have things back to normal soon.”

The following was posted on Twitter Status 25 min. ago:

“Experiencing elevated error rates 25 minutes ago

You may experience some problems loading twitter.com and with Twitter clients.  We are aware of the problem and are taking action.

The crash has occurred at the worst possible time, as users increasingly depend on Twitter for confirmations and clarifications on breaking news out of Japan.

UPDATE: 12:32.  my twitter page is back up again.

UPDATE2:  12:36p  belay that first update.  I got one tweet out and the system has locked up again.

UPDATE3:  1p.  Tech issues appear to be resolved.

UPDATE4. 1:01p.  Belay update #3.  After two tweets Twitter went off line again.

UPDATE5: 2:45p  Twitter access still erratic.

The other day an innocuous mention of President Obama’s iPad quickly deteriorated into a wildly speculative our-president-is-an-elitist-queue-jumper story that propagated across the MSM.  A shout-out goes to my local San Francisco NBC affiliate, KNTV, for their significant contribution to the virulent mess, with an assist from the CNN White House producer.

Michael Schneider (@franklinavenue) - LA Bureau Chief for TV Guide, directing his comments at KNTV -  tweeted:  This is the worst journalism I’ve seen in a long time. @nbcbayarea, you should be ashamed.  (note: @franklinavenue is Schneider’s personal Twitter page.  His work tweets are here.)

The mess was first noted by Josef Adalian (@TVMoJoe on Twitter) - west coast editor for NYMag’s Vulture blogger - who tracked the evolution of the story.

It’s a textbook example of how far-fetched speculation propagates and mutates into accepted fact, how an innocent mention of Obama’s iPad was shaped into an attack on the President’s character.

In ital. here’s the series of tweets by the clearly exasperated @TVMoJoe.  My comments in the parentheses.

So yesterday, Pres Obama does a Univision town hall, reveals he has an iPad. Cute. Here’s how CBSMktWatch reports: http://bit.ly/eDDBqX

All good so far. But CNN also reports. Says it’s not sure if it’s iPad 1 or 2. Notes iPad users are “selfish elites.” http://bit.ly/ekmb2z

(fyi - on the above - the link leads to a blog post by CNN White House producer Bonney Kapp who concluded her comments with an inexplicably mean swipe.)

A little wingnut bait, but OK. Here comes a Mac blog: It decides Obama has an iPad 2 & Steve Jobs gave it to him. http://bit.ly/eRnFyy

(The Mac blog references CNN, then takes over where CNN left off.)

Here’s where things go south, fast: NBC affil in LA say it’s an iPad and that Obama “cut in line” to get it. Really. http://bit.ly/gmNzwc

(For me, the link leads to NBC San Francisco Bay Area affiliate KNTV.  Not only that, KNTV featured the story prominently on their home page using a font twice the size of most of their heds: “Obama Cuts in Line and Gets an iPad 2″   NBC mentions The Mac Blog that mentions CNN.)

(Side note: I got an iPad 2 on the day it was released after waiting in line just 20 minutes at a Wal-Mart. It wasn’t impossible to obtain.)

Sure enough, Drudge SLOBBERS all over that “Obama cuts in line” hed and posts a link.

I’m not sure if FoxNews.com saw Drudge or vice-versa, but FoxNews.com now has now ripped off first grafs of NBC report: http://bit.ly/goD9jB

So one innocent Obama remark about owning an iPad turns into “Obama gets special favors from Apple” meme-in-waiting. Really.

This allows commenters on all sites to drool on about what a creep Obama is and make lame “there’s an app for that” “jokes”

Obama may very well have called Jobs himself and gotten an iPad 2. Jobs might have sent him one, unrequested. But we don’t know any of this.

This is what happens when you lay off lots and lots of reporters, consolidate, and destroy local media. Among other things.

Then, @franklinavenue followed the links and recapped @TVMoJoe’s series of tweets on his personal blog, using multiple screen captures. (Worth reading.  The post took some time to construct, clearly.)

It’s no wonder many media consumers are half-crazed much of the time.  They’re fed a steady diet of gut-wrenching distortions and speculative fiction masquerading as news and fact.

Recently, conservative columnist Peter Wehner warned about the dangers of imagined conspiracies:  The danger when one paints the world in such conspiratorial terms is that it devalues the rational side of politics. It encourages a cast of mind that looks to expose enemies rather than to engage in arguments.

In another excellent blog post titled “The Dangers of Demonization and  The Conspiracy  Temptation,” Wehner had this to say: If we get to the point where we assume that our political differences can be explained only by some deeper, hidden evil in our opponents, then self-government itself is trouble.

NBC affiliate KNTV especially went out of their way to demonize.  Multiply this times a thousand for the daily American radioactive dose.  It’s the meth of the airwaves.  Initially, audiences get a kick out of the petty speculations  (and websites may see a brief uptick in traffic and comments) but, in the long run, it’s toxic to the body politic.

UPDATE: KNTV has now altered the headline to simply say “Obama Gets An iPad” - several days after the fact.   There’s  an editor’s note, saying the White House “has not responded to a request for comment.”

There were other changes to the story as well but it’s still filled with speculation that Obama received an  iPad 2 from Steve Jobs as “a gift for choosing him as a dinner guest.”

Given the inflammatory language that has poisoned the airwaves and political discourse recently, almost everyone I know was expecting the rhetoric to eventually lead to some sort of violent and tragic end.   It did - in Arizona.

Reducing the violence in Arizona as the work of a single, mentally ill shooter  somehow divorced from the cultural context. Extremist language matters.

we can no longer white wash the situation in this country.  the rhetoric has gone too far and it’s time for Fox News to reflect on the consequences of invective and sheer propaganda.

absurd

She said that acts like the shootings in Arizona “begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state.”

This is rather shocking statement from Palin.  By that logic, Joseph Goebbels, the architect of Hitler’s propaganda machine, would never be considered the monster he is today.  And the International Criminal Tribunal  life sentence would never have been requested for the leaders of  propaganda radio that helped fuel the Rwandan genocide.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda’s action against RTLM began on 23 October 2000 - along with the trial against Hassan Ngeze, director and editor of the Kangura magazine.

On 19 August 2003, at the tribunal in Arusha, life sentences were requested for RTLM leaders Ferdinand Nahimana, and Jean Bosco Barayagwiza. They were charged with genocide, incitement to genocide, and crimes against humanity, before and during the period of the genocides of 1994.

A number of pundit I greatly admire seems to want to sidestep the issue.  And even Jon Stewart had little to say.  some sort of invective denial, as if the shooting don’t exit in context, on another planet perhaps.

very slippery slope  strident

madness of crowds: it’s just not for financial bubbles.

Glenn Beck conspiracey theories about FEMA concentration camps and the Tides Foundation, and the linkages to the shootout in Oakland, carrying an AK47 and bulletproof vest and miracle that OPD office wasn’t killed in the line of duty.

Poisong Nancy Pelosi, Sharon Angle talking “second amendment remedies” providing a platform for the birthers etc. etc.

The climate of paranoia is risings and cable news is promulgating it.  While Fox News is not a monolith (Shep Smith is an reasoned voice and Bill O’Reilly has his moments in the sun), but there is a unhealthy strain of paranoia on Fox News that is damaging political discourse in this country.

and a discussion of veins of anti-semitism is unavoidable.

This is a convenient narrative for MSM, since cable news channels have played a role in the   magnifies the rhetoric with the 24/7 bullhorn cycle and constant need for drama.  it’s a state of high level excitation.

In the aftermath of the heartbreaking shooting in Arizona, reaction has been instantaneous, and the finger pointing - especially at Sarah Palin for her crosshairs imagery pointed right at Congresswoman Gifford’s District - is getting special attention.

I’m in a long-time relationship with my cable provider.  According to Comcast, we’ve been together for 22 years, since 1989.   Technically, we’ve been with Comcast for about a decade, but Comcast acquired our service provider. But any way you look at it, we’ve been customers for quite awhile.

I’ve been through a lot with Comcast - rate hikes, installation hiccups, the port blocking debacle, the Motorola DVR debacle etc. etc.  After so many years, the list of complaints can get pretty long.   Sometimes my frustrations spilled out onto this blog and/or Twitter.   I/we (my family) stuck it out with Comcast, but more for devil-you-know reasons.

The alternative was (shudder!) AT&T, which was acquired by SBC which then changed their name to AT&T.  But back in the day, we were burned by a four month nightmare with SBC after they failed to apply the promised phone plan.  Our phone bill silently skyrocketed until one day we were suddenly without service.  SBC had cut off our telephone service, on a Friday night of course.  And customer service was closed over the weekend, of course.  The problem required two direct interventions by the office of the SBC president.

After SBC acquired AT&T, a change-over to AT&T was unthinkable.  Satellite presented a number of difficulties, not the least of which was

Lately, however, there’s been a shift at Comcast, a sea change.   In the last few months, their customer service has been consistently awesome.   The carpet installers dismantled our cable box and everything else that went with it (don’t get me started) and Comcast dispatched someone - a very great someone - to put it all back together for us.   The cost of the service call was a little steep.  Nevertheless, it wasn’t Comcast’s problem, or fault.  Nevertheless, when I spoke to a Comcast rep about the

Every time I’m ready to press send on a post touting Comcast, they go and throw a wrench into my praise plans.

And just when I was about to publish this headline - “Comcast Customer Service Turns A Corner….”   Sigh.

My recent bill arrived with some overcharges.  I tweeted happily about the speedy resolution of the issue.  Feeling all warm and fuzzy about my experience, I just called Comcast to add a third phone line.   We still have an old land-line (yeah, I know, so dinosaur!) with AT&T.  I figured, well, things are going so smoothly with Comcast these days, it’s a good time to make the switch.

Instead I’ve found myself wrangling with Comcast for the better part of an afternoon.

For years, we’ve subscribed to nearly everything Comcast offers - DVR, HD, all premium cable channels (Starz, HBO, Showtime etc.), and two phone lines.  (I’m not sure where this puts us in the constellation of Comcast customers, but it must be up there.)

And we probably rank among their longest-running subscribers, too - since 1989, according to a Comcast rep.

But when I called to add the third phone line I was told, in the nicest possible way,  I’d have to pay a $25 installation fee.

It’s $11.95/month for the basic phone line (no additional features).  I said  ‘no can do’ on the install fee.  I asked to speak to a supervisor.  After some time on hold, the rep said I’d have to leave a message for the supervisor, since they’re not permitted to keep customers on hold for more than ten minutes.

I was assured the supervisor would call back within twenty minutes.   It’s been about an hour.  I’m still waiting.

It’s only $25, you say.  But these costs quickly add up.  I’ve been closely monitoring expenditures in my household.  Just for the month of February we’ve been dinged $126 in unfair overcharges of various types so far.  This doesn’t count JP Morgan Chase which started billing $20 per month for a checking account while simultaneously axing a key online feature.  Excess fees and overcharges are costing my family thousands of dollars every year.  Tracking and eliminating these charges is a part-time job.

$25?  Darn it, Comcast - it’s my little line in the sand.

UPDATE: the supervisor finally called and offered a $20 installation fee, instead of $25.  “It’s usually $40,” she said.  My answer was “no.”  She said she’d call back.  Stay tuned.

UPDATE2:  Comcast did reach out.  It appears that the problem is solved.  We’re playing phone tag, due to my unavailability yesterday.

In answer to one comment, see above - 22 years and thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) spent on services.  It’s the basic business principle of customer retention, knowing who your best customers are and rewarding that loyalty, especially when said customer is actually trying to pay you even more money.  American Express and Nordstrom have it down to a science.