Many determined journalists have defiantly left Twitter only to return a week or a month later.
People who come to mind: NYT‘s Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush, and Commentary‘s John Podhoretz. Haberman wrote a column explaining why the “toxic partisan anger” had pushed her away. Haberman left the medium for five whole weeks. (RELATED: NYT’s Maggie Haberman Said She Was Leaving Twitter But She Can’t Help Herself)
Fox News Senior Meteorologist Janice Dean is taking a Twitter break and resorting to Instagram until the spirit brings her back.
Naturally, Dean speaks about her decision in weather terms.
“Hi all. I’m going to take a self imposed break from @Twitter for a while because I feel it’s clouding up my view,” Dean tweeted Tuesday. “I want this to be a sunny space not a spiteful one. I’m still going to still post pictures and jokes on Instagram if you want to follow me there. All love. JD”
Thrush called Twitter “too much of a distraction.” He left in September, 2017. Politico media writer Jack Shafer called it. When Thrush left the medium, he snarked, “Like Garth Brooks, he’ll be back.” A few months after he left, the NYT suspended him. In March, 2018, he turned back up on Twitter.
Podhoretz, who has a penchant for wearing really heinous medium blue cable-knit sweaters on MSNBC, gave himself a 30-day Twitter timeout in January, 2019. Not that President Trump adviser Roger Stone can’t handle it, but Podhoretz made a lewd comment about how much Stone would enjoy prison. (RELATED: John Podhoretz Treats Himself Like A Small Child)
“Given his proclivities, Roger Stone will enjoy prison,” he tweeted.
Breitbart News blasted Podhoretz for being a homophobe.
Obviously Podhoretz returned.
New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo would applaud Janice Dean.
In a column called “Never tweet” that ran back in January, Manjoo wrote that “it’s time we journalists all considered disengaging from the daily rhythms of Twitter, the world’s most damaging social network.”
His main advice: “Tweet less, lurk more.”
Hopefully Dean will return to sunshine, rainbows and puppies.
In her 2019 book, Mostly Sunny: How I Learned To Keep Smiling Through The Rainy Days, she wrote about living through jerky, sexist bosses, and living with Multiple Sclerosis.
On Wednesday, so far she has only one new tweet and it involves world kindness.
It urges people to let other people merge into your lane.
#WorldKindnessDay ☀️ pic.twitter.com/Lpht8uzeMU
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) November 13, 2019