Timeline Of A Viral Story

Here is a cautionary tale of how one little story goes from a post on a blog in West Tennessee to national news in about six hours:

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Sometime around 10:00 A.M. CDT:  Newscoma posts the original story of the racist photo an anonymous legislative staffer sent her.

11:00 A.M.:  Newscoma e-mails several other liberal bloggers in Tennessee to express her disgust and anger over the issue.

11:02 A.M.:  Other bloggers start posting it up.

12:32 P.M.:  The story hits Nashville is Talking.

12:36 P.M.:  Newscoma reveals that the original e-mail had come from Sherri Goforth in Diane Black's office.  Blog posts updated accordingly.

1:35 P.M.:  Christian Grantham talks to Goforth, where she issued her non-apology apology.  Seriously, just who is on the "right" list?  Blog posts again updated accordingly.

1:39 P.M.:  Grantham puts up links to all the other blog posts, essentially becoming the "hub" for the development of the story.

2:39 P.M.:  I decide this story needs more exposure, so I write it up for Daily Kos.

2:43 P.M.:  Grantham announces that WKRN will put this on the evening news.

3:28 P.M.:  The story starts to go national as Wonkette picks it up.

4:02 P.M.:  The going-national continues as Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic also picks it up.

4:04 P.M.:  After having problems uploading the actual photo, the Daily Kos post goes live.

4:27 P.M.:  Daily Kos post hits the "recommended list".

4:30 P.M.:  The story hits the Associated Press, first official news story comes out.

4:48 P.M.:  Daily Kos post gets added to the front page, ensuring that it's the first thing all 200,000+ registered (and hundreds of thousands more unregistered) Daily Kos readers see when they log on.

4:58 P.M.:  Think Progress picks it up.

5:21 P.M.:  TNDP Chairman Chip Forrester issues a press release demanding that Goforth "go forth" from the legislature.

5:33 P.M.:  Adam Kleinheider finally decides this story is important enough for Post Politics, apparently waiting for the Forrester statement so he could make it about "those crazy Chipinista with their demands!"

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So let this be a cautionary tale to any political campaigners or staffers.  The story went live at 10, went statewide by 11, went national by 3:30, and was EVERYWHERE (except for Post Politics) by 4:30.  So in the span of about six to six and a half hours, everyone knows just how much racism exists within the TNGOP.  And all because a staffer just had to hit the "forward" button.

Never think for one second that you won't get caught, that you can keep the story under wraps.  Those days are long gone.