Rep. Steve Cohen thinks Cyndi Lauper is ‘hot,’ but deletes tweet saying so

[garbon]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/wp/2013/04/11/rep-steve-cohen-thinks-cyndi-lauper-is-hot/

Rep. Steve Cohen thinks Cyndi Lauper is "hot" — a bold statement in these days when commenting on a woman's charms can be risky business.

The Tennessee Democrat was so taken by the singer at the White House Memphis Soul event Tuesday night that he tweeted his admiration and a photo Wednesday: "@cyndilauper great night,couldn't believe how hot u were.see you again next Tuesday.try a little tenderness."

Unclear if he was talking about her looks or her performance, but Cohen quickly came to his political senses and deleted the post after after 21 minutes. But that was long enough to land on the Sunlight Foundation's Politwoops, which tracks politicians' deleted tweets.

A rep for Cohen confirmed it was the congressman himself who sent it, but declined further comment on the tweet. Cohen took to the House floor Thursday for more praise of the Memphis Soul night: "While there were a lot of great performers there, I want to put a particular shout out to Miss Cyndi Lauper. She's special." He singled out her rendition of Otis Redding's "Try a Little Tenderness."  "I would suggest to my colleagues in the other side they ought to try a little tenderness on occasion." Then more praise for Lauper –but no mention of the tweet one way or the other.

This isn't the first time Cohen's deleted tweets went public: His messages to a comely 24-year-old during the State of the Union raised eyebrows. . . until he revealed she was his secret daughter.

Washington Post picked a great pic for article.

[Viking]

I'm torn between making a joke about the Tennesse AG and making a joke about Ashley Judd and how it would be ok to perv her if she is a Kentuckian at heart.

[fhdz]

It's weird that politicians are expected to be sexless.

[The Brain]

She Bop

[garbon]

It's weird that politicians are expected to be sexless.

I think they are expect to be a little more discreet / not so weird on social media.

[garbon]

From wiki about when he was tweeting his daughter:

In 2013, Cohen was repeatedly tweeting Victoria Brink, a Texas State University student, during the State of the Union Address, then deleting the tweets

[crazy canuck]

It's weird that politicians are expected to be sexless.

I think they are expect to be a little more discreet / not so weird on social media.

lol, you are beginning to exhibit a Marti like double standard.

[garbon]

Am I a politician?

Also are you stalking me? I don't remember giving you access to my social media accounts.

[Sheilbh]

First Maggie, now this. Conviction politics is dead

[Malthus]

It's weird that politicians are expected to be sexless.

I think they are expect to be a little more discreet / not so weird on social media.

Hell, tweeting that he thinks Cyndi Lauper is "hot" might imply that he likes her music, which would clearly disentitle him from public service! 

[garbon]

It's weird that politicians are expected to be sexless.

I think they are expect to be a little more discreet / not so weird on social media.

Hell, tweeting that he thinks Cyndi Lauper is "hot" might imply that he likes her music, which would clearly disentitle him from public service! 

He can't be an adovcate of she bopping?

[Kleves]

garbon was taken in by Cohen's clever ruse:

Rep. Steve Cohen said Friday that his tweet labeling musician Cyndi Lauper as "hot" was part of a ruse to draw attention to the singer and the Memphis music scene.

The Tennessee Democrat said at a Capitol Hill news conference that he told some congressional colleagues about his plan before he went ahead with it and that he knew he would draw more attention by deleting the tweet and allowing people to believe he had mis-tweeted.

"In this age, which I learned a couple of months ago in a situation with some very innocent and loving tweets to my daughter, I discovered that the best way to get a message out is to tweet and delete, because the press will instantaneously assume something nefarious, something salacious, and jump on it," Cohen said. "I go to great lengths to talk about my home city of Memphis."

Cohen's overly affectionate tweets earlier this year to a young model raised eyebrows about their relationship. He later announced that she was his daughter and that he hadn't known about her until three years ago.

It seemed to be happening again this week when Cohen tweeted at Lauper and then deleted it shortly thereafter.

"@cyndilauper great night,couldn't believe how hot u were.see you again next Tuesday.try a little tenderness," Cohen posted Tuesday night, deleting the tweet shortly thereafter.

The tweet was archived, as are all deleted tweets by members of Congress, by the Sunlight Foundation's Politwoops Web site.

"If I put out a press release or a tweet, no one would see it," Cohen said. "But I knew from my last episode, because of Politwoops, and the Sunshine (sic) Foundation ... I knew the press would see it, and I knew the press would also see the worst in it and publish it, and by doing so, they would publicize the Memphis music event unlike anything I could have ever done."

[garbon]

I totally was.  Not really sure his advertising will do much though - well maybe for people who forget that Memphis exists.

[garbon]

Also his full explanation (Time..Tim? calls him a Master of Media. )

http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/12/steve-cohen-is-master-of-the-media/#ixzz2QHSyChoA

On Tuesday night, the President and Mrs. Obama, along with the Grammys and PBS, hosted a musical tribute to Memphis Soul at the White House.  Wanting to promote this great program, which will air this coming Tuesday on PBS, I realized the best way to do this was to tweet and delete.  I knew the Sunlight Foundation would highlight the deleted tweet as a Politwoop and knowing how some in the media report deleted Politwoops as nefarious, it occurred to me that a perfectly innocent, factually-correct tweet, once deleted, would receive great media attention.  And that is exactly what happened when I tweeted:

@cyndilauper great night,couldn't believe how hot u were.see you again next Tuesday.try a little tenderness.

The night at the White House was great, I was amazed at Cyndi Lauper's hot performance and I look forward to seeing her performance of "Try a Little Tenderness" again when it airs next Tuesday on PBS. That's what the tweet said but that's not how it has been speciously interpreted in the media.

For two months, I've had in my mind the movie Absence of Malice, the first screenplay by Kurt Luedtke, a former reporter.  The movie highlights the damage done to persons, albeit with a legal absence of malice, because of sloppy, "gotcha" journalism.

Laura Kirchner, a former Columba Journalism Review assistant editor, wrote that as a first semester student in journalism school, she was assigned the 1981 Sydney Pollack film Absence of Malice by one of the professors of the required Ethics course.   As Ms. Kirchner states in a July 15, 2011 article, the reporter played by Sally Field "forgets she's talking to actual people, people who will have to live with the effects of what she writes about them.

Two months ago, my family was personally hurt and victimized by sensationalized, fact-less speculation masquerading as journalism.  I hope this serves to bring attention to the need for journalistic integrity as well as encouraging everyone to watch the spectacular and hot performances of Memphis music by Cyndi Lauper, as well as Justin Timberlake, William Bell, Steve Cropper, Sam Moore, Booker T. Jones, Queen Latifah, Ben Harper, Charlie Musselwhite, Eddie Floyd, Alabama Shakes, Joshua Ledet, and Mavis Staples on PBS next Tuesday evening.

[crazy canuck]

Am I a politician?

Also are you stalking me? I don't remember giving you access to my social media accounts.

No, its just that when you say something a bit daft it is worth commenting on.  For a couple of days you have been going on about how people's sexuality is important in the context of gays and now when a non gay shows some sexuality all of a sudden it is improper. 

Btw I this is about as close to social media as I get.