Newsweek editor Jon Meacham, the guy who thinks President Obama is “sort of God” and writes articles that reveal his infatuation, wants people to think he doesn’t use Twitter because they hear enough of his nonsense already. Here’s what Meacham said on C-SPAN:

I’m not. I feel that if anyone wants to call me, I’m available. I don’t. We have it on the Web site. And I think it’s a fascinating phenomenon. But I figure that the people who know me certainly have to listen to me too much anyway, at least that’s their view.

That’s one theory. Here’s another: Meacham knows Twitter is a powerful tool for holding journalists like him accountable when they cross the line from informer to cheerleader.

Accuracy In Media used Twitter to direct outrage toward CBS’ Katie Couric earlier this year when she accepted a journalism award even as journalist John Ziegler was harassed and cuffed for trying to ask questions about why she deserved the award. And last week, both Playboy and Politico retracted stories after “tweetstorms” related to a Playboy article that fantasized about raping conservative women.

“Twitter has POWAH!!!” liberal blogger Tommy Christopher, who was fired by AOL’s Politics Daily for helping expose Playboy’s vile story, wrote after Politico pulled its blog post. “[T]his episode shows the power of teh Twitter to get things done. Nice job, Tweeps.”

Christopher also gave Twitter users credit for pressuring Playboy to pull the article that Politico had linked. “So, yes, this is a free country,” he wrote. “A country where people are free to speak, and where others are free to voice their strong disagreement. This case is a great example of both, and a showcase for Twitter as a means to amplify the voices of the aggrieved.

Top media dogs like Meacham have seen the power of Twitter and fear it. While Newsweek and other major media outlets have embraced Twitter as a new tool for broadcasting their content, their leaders by and large don’t want a presence on Twitter because they don’t want to be held accountable. They would much rather hide inside the Ivory Tower, where they don’t have to hear the angry online mobs who are sick of liberal bias in the media.

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