Fox29 anchor's tweet breaks bad
Anchor's effort to link "Breaking Bad" to Philly murder becomes social media phenomenon of the night.
It's the goal of every local news anchor to break out, to make a name for herself. Right?
Well, last night veteran Fox29 news anchor Joyce Evans achieved all that and more -- thanks to a remarkably ill-advised Twitter posting trying to create a Sunday night pop-culture tie-in to the big story -- the shooting of six men on a Kingsessing street corner.
Tweeted Evans ( @JoyceEvansFox29 ): "Thought "Breaking Bad" was hot last Sunday? @FOX29philly See who's breakin' bad in SW Philly leavin' 6 people SHOT - Tonite at Ten!"
The next sound you heard was Twitter exploding. Within minutes, Evans' posting had been re-tweeted by users of the social network more than 2,500 times (note: that's a lot!) and drawn dozens of reactions -- first shock and horror over the tie in to the just-concluded TV drama about a chemistry-teacher-turned-meth-kingpin. Especially since a 23-year-old man had died on the hail of bullets outside of a Philadelphia deli.
Wrote Max. L (@LonettoMB) : "this tweet sounds like it was written by a sociopath."
"I'll say this much," tweeted Jeb Lund (@Mobute) "You're a lot more famous now than you were eight minutes ago."
Next came the satire. Within an hour, the hashtag #JoyceEvansTweets -- mash-ups of favorite TV shows and urban street carnage -- started to trend on the social network.
"Enjoy True Blood? Wait till you see the puddles of REAL blood in SW Philly tonight!, " posted local writer Brian Hickey. (@BrianPHickey)
Added Will Bunch (@Will_Bunch): "Like the ending of "The Sopranos"? It was a fade to black for this South Jersey man -- Tonight at 10!"
Oh wait, heh, that was me. Anyway, before 11 p.m. the whole affair became a national cause celebre. The national website Salon.com had written a whole article about it, and even New York Times media writer Brian Stelter had tweeted about the fiasco.
Did Evans have anything to say for herself? Yes. "Last tweet NOT AST ALL A JOKE," (sic) she tweeted. "Very real life drama was the point as oppose to one that end on tv. That was my point."
Will her bosses understand? Will there be repercussions, or will there be a bloody end to Evans' career at Fox-29. I guess you'll have to find out -- Tonite at 10!