Welcome back! For this blog post, I wanted to write about something different; I wanted to see how social media (Twitter specifically) would impact a pre-web2.0 political scandal. To learn more, I did some research on President Cleveland’s scandal and thought about how it differed if Twitter was around during the time. Nowadays, social media has all sorts of political uses, one of which is to gather information during scandals. Before the existence of social media, Grover Cleveland faced a scandal regarding a secret son of his during his Presidential Campaign. Maria Halpin, a Buffalo resident, spoke out about an incident regarding President Cleveland. She argued that he led her back to her room one night after dinner and forced himself upon her. In the consequently weeks, she found out that she was pregnant and claimed that her baby was Grover Cleveland’s. Cleveland denied these allegations and of forcing himself upon her, however, he claimed paternity to save his best friend’s marriage (Serratore). Investigators looked into the situation and a lot of details regarding the incident began to emerge. Eventually, the scandal started to be forgotten about as people were dismissing the event as a young man’s folly. Weeks later, Grover Cleveland became the 22nd President of the United States.
If Twitter were to have existed, here is how I think it would have looked during the scandal:
@Maria.Halpin: NOBODY VOTE FOR GROVER CLEVELAND. HE IS A TOTAL ASSHOLE. HE FORCED ME TO MAKE LOVE TO HIM THEN STOLE OUR BABY. EVEN WORSE, HE SENT ME TO A MENTAL ASYLUM! I AM NOT A CRAZY PERSON!!
@TheRealGrover: We don’t even know if that boy is mine. You sleep with so many dudes that the odds he’s mine are very low. The only reason I claimed paternity is to save one of my friend’s marriages. Also, I did not force you to do anything. If anything, you forced me to make love to you. You couldn’t keep your hands off me all night!
@NBCNews: BREAKING: Grover Cleveland accused of sexual assault and abduction. More to come in the coming hour.
@Maria.Halpin: BRUHHH. HE’S YOURS. STOP ACTING LIKE HE ISN’T. YOU WERE THE ONLY ONE I SLEPT WITH DURING THAT TIME. YOU NEED TO STOP ACTING LIKE A CHILD AND START ACTING LIKE THE FATHER YOU ARE!
@TheRealGrover: @BuffaloMentalAsylum Can you please take this psychopath back.
@BuffaloMentalAsylum: Nah. She’s not psychotic she’s just weird.
@TheRealGrover: Ugh.
@Maria.Halpin: CAN YOU KNOCK IT OFF GROVER. COME GET YOUR CHILD. STOP TELLING ME I’M PSYCHO. STOP TRYING TO MAKE ME LOOK LIKE THE VILLAIN IN THIS SITUATION.
@RepublicanRebecca1: Ma, ma, where’s my Pa? @TheRealGrover
@VeteranVoter22: @TheRealGrover how could you do that to her? She is so beautiful! Her complexion and her eyes… she’s perfect. Can’t believe you’d do this to her. SMH #notgettingmyvote
@DontheDemocrat: These goddamn republicans man. Obviously just some girl making up a story to draw votes away from Grover. Stop making fake news. #GrovertheGOAT
@NBCNews: UPDATE– The baby’s name is Oscar Folsom Cleveland.
@DontheDemocrat: 
@NBCNews: UPDATE– Grover Cleveland is being defended by Henry Ward Beecher.
@PastorCrabbe: I’ve known this man for a little while now. Trust me when I say he is bad with women. The baby is definitely his. #LordpleasehelpGrover
@NBCNews: BREAKING: Grover Cleveland wins the presidential election by 2000 votes! Welcome to the White House, President Grover!
@RepublicanRebecca1: Ma, ma, where’s my Pa? @TheRealGrover
@DontheDemocrat: Off to the White House, ha ha ha!!!
As we have seen through this little experiment and on Twitter today, social media has a large impact on politics. It is very easy to voice your opinion on social media and because of this, we see a lot of political issues get blown out of proportion by third parties. Another reason this happens is because of fake news. People can go on Twitter and create some ridiculous story that people will believe because it aligns with their feelings on a certain issue. In my Digital Communications class, we did an exercise where we tried to discern fake news stories from real ones and not one group categorized all of the headlines correctly. Because it can be difficult to tell what news is real and what is fake, it is hard to find out what actually happened during a political scandal. The information we receive through social media is also usually biased. People will write in a way that aligns with their opinion so they can get more people to change to have the same viewpoint as them. Long story short, finding out the truth through social media can be very difficult. The way people use Twitter varies so much that it is often untrustworthy. I hope this post and the flow of tweets above can help you become more aware that what you’re reading may not be the full truth because they are trying to persuade you into taking their opinion.
Citations:
Serratore, Angela. “President Cleveland’s Problem Child.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 26 Sept. 2013, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/president-clevelands-problem-child-100800/.
