Posted on 03/30/2014 9:35:50 PM PDT by bimboeruption
I didn’t set out to become Twitter famous in Saudi Arabia.
As a senior White House reporter for POLITICO, I’ve traveled all over the country and the world with President Barack Obama, touching down in Air Force One on one unremarkable tarmac after another to record his arrival. I seldom find them noteworthy — and, as an infrequent tweeter, rarely ever share-worthy.
But Riyadh was different. A stunning display of Saudi guards awaited Obama at the airport Friday in perfect formation, swords in hand and scarves on their head. So I did something I don’t normally do: I tweeted the photos.
And by the time I departed Saudi Arabia for the United States less than 24 hours later, my Twitter follower count had more than quadrupled — from just 3,500 to more than 15,000.
The story of how that happened spotlights the powerful, disruptive force of Twitter in a country that sharply restricts news of its royal family and the government.
My stream of mediocre iPhone photos — mostly taken at King Abdullah’s desert retreat — managed to captivate, anger and surprise the country’s vast Twitter community. Al-Arabiya did a piece Saturday on my “famous” feed, local newspapers picked up the photos, reporters have attempted to interview me, and the tweets demanding more images kept rolling in Sunday.
It shouldn’t have been a surprise. Use of the social network in Saudi Arabia has exploded since the Arab Spring, making that country the fastest-growing market in the world, according to GlobalWebIndex, a marketing research firm. It’s also the top global market in terms of time spent on mobile devices, as 60 percent of users access the internet through phones or tablets rather than PCs.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
so basically one of the braindead leg-tingling drooling minions from the MSM tweeted his hard on for the Won?
Bow down before the one you serve
you’re going to get what you deserve...
King Abdullah is the raghead Bush2 smooched and held hands with when he was president.
“Our dear friends, the Saudis”...
I think the reporter still doesn’t see the enormity of what she and other tweeting reporters did. She is very lucky the house of saud hasn’t laid their mitts on her yankee neck so far. All Royals know the power is mostly in their mystique. The richest of them usually stay out of the spotlight on purpose. Somehow, I don’t think she aquitted herself with the greatest of decorum. Even though the Saudis are Human Rights Violators writ large.
I find it VERY telling that he strolls within a couple of feet of saudi soldiers armec with swords and guns... with carefree abandon ... while, in the past, he has demanded all weapons be confiscated from US military personnel if he visited a base
it wasn’t until I saw these pictures that I realized he’s working for them
how else would you explain the difference?
He knows they will not harm him
WHY he feels they won’t harm him, but US troops will, is the crux
He’s got a thang for the Moose. As for actually not being harmed, I say just “lucky.”
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