Community | April 17, 2009 | Comment on this video (69)

Ashton Out-Twitters CNN

VSiskos
Ashton Kutcher beats CNN to one million followers on Twitter. His win means a $100,000 donation to the non-profit Malaria No More.

For more news video by Current TV visit http://current.com/
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    News,  On Current TV,  Twitter,  News_Featured,  2 more
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    VSiskos Editor, VSiskos Producer
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69 comments // Ashton Out-Twitters CNN // Video

  • WordCandy
    • 0
      WordCandy  

    • 1) Twitter is ridiculous.

      2) Does Ashton even do anything besides scream at his neighbors to twiter about?

      3) At least money went to charity

    • 3 years ago
  • SHAWN_RITTIMAN
  • CalgarC
  • hunzedog
  • swagbag
    • 0
      swagbag  

    • i'm voting this down because i don't give much crap about this, but man, i went out of my way to follow CNN on twitter... sad..

    • 3 years ago
  • hjonnsters
    • 0
      hjonnsters  

    • just visit herebeforeoprah.com. The simple service asks the question, "was _______ here before oprah?" Simply fill in the blank with your Twitter name and if you adopted early enough, you'll get confirmation of your Twitter street cred. For example, I'm very pleased to get a response, "@parislemon was here before @oprah."

      I understand why some of you are upset about Oprah "ruining" Twitter, I really do. I put in countless hours/days/months of mindless 140 character messages just like the rest of you. But suck it up, and get your revenge by letting Oprah know that despite her gaining over 300,000 followers in a day, you beat her to the service.

    • 3 years ago
  • 2helenahandbasket
  • RazC
    • 0
      RazC  

    • It kinda dilutes the meaning of 'followers'. Of for the Facebook crowd, 'Friends'. I've never known the word to mean so much less than before.

    • 3 years ago
  • dreamsenvoy
  • AmourTerreux
  • grassroutes
    • 0
      grassroutes  

    • @ haters of this story

      I dont twitter

      but I didn't donate $100,000 to fight malaria in Africa either

      when was the last time you donated to a cause on myspace or facebook?

      think about it...

    • 3 years ago
  • lucidstone
    • 0
      lucidstone  
    • grassroutes:

      My problem isn't with the stunt itself, but of Current's coverage of it with this pod. This pod sucks, it's celebrity news with more interest in Ashton, twitter, and CNN than it shows interest in the charity and/or malaria.

      The lack of substance in this coverage is worthy of a gossip column . . . not "featured" news on Current's main page.

      Current is supposed to stand for substance, not this crappy coverage.

    • 3 years ago
  • gonzolively
    • 0
      gonzolively  

    • Sersiously!? First of all, this is not news. Second of all, why does this event mark anything significant enough to be news worthy? (A guy, whom is pretty well known gets more people to watch his status update than a news source can) Thirdly I'm not much of a bandwagon person, and is it just me or does everyone seem to be "twittering" and love talking about it recently more than ever? If you truly want to make a difference in the world you do it when no one is looking and leave no way for you to get credit.

    • 3 years ago
  • bigfatasian08
  • krush_productions
  • Freaked2Much
    • 0
      Freaked2Much  

    • We had the same problem with YTube. We ran a small partner channel for Pets & Animals. We did well with advertising etc. Then marketing companies moved in and offered to sell Views of videos. That pushed all the smaller channels out since new channels would buy 100K Views for marketing purposes. I just hope this does not happen on Twitter. It's a relevant story.

    • 3 years ago
  • MiguelSanchez
  • keithponder
    • 0
      keithponder  

    • Siskos,

      Who in the fuck hired you ? This is absolute garbage.

      Enlighten me,please.

      You just seem to keep getting, dumber & dumber & dumber & dumber....,,,

      You Dad must be a major stockholder in the company or something because, you just don't seem to be able to quite cut it with what you doing.

      THIS IS GARBAGE.

    • 3 years ago
  • SPECIALIST
  • bjlawrence11
  • PajamaDan
    • 0
      PajamaDan  

    • This is so stupid. Everybody is nutso for Twitter,... and it's getting the mega-huge publicity that has killed all social sites. And secondly,... how the eff did Ashton win?!!? He doesn't even do anything anymore, except produce horrible shows.
      Fads are amazing,... huh?!!?
      Friendster rocks! No, MySpace rocks! No, Facebook rocks! No, Digg! No, Twitter! Blah, blah, blah.

    • 3 years ago
  • Freaked2Much
    • 0
      Freaked2Much  
    • PajamaDan:

      Called "Publicity" do you know how much he would had to spend to get this much publicity? The hour on Larry King alone was worth the 100K he donated. That doesn't even cover the fact that now everybody is mentioning his name because of the crappy Twitter stunt. All about bucks.

    • 3 years ago
  • ClipsFC
    • 0
      ClipsFC  

    • Yes 1 person is fine, even Zero people is fine :)

      I don't believe the trash about Kutcher doing it solely for a Charity. The publicity he received for this alone is worth 10 times the amount he is giving (tax deductible) to a charity. Its now become a new media obsession for the 'Stars' another example is Oprah's big stunt yesterday on her TV show to get followers on Twitter. Ellen followed of course.
      Now marketing companies are already advertising in online ads through Goggle AdSense 'We will make you famous on Twitter' and offer plans of payment for 10K Followers, 100K Followers etc. Much as they used to do with Views on YouTube.
      In addition several 'Celebrities' have admitted (See a previous article I posted here on Current.com) that they have fans operating the Twitter account. Did you honestly think that Tom Cruise is sitting in his bed at night tweeting to the millions?

    • 3 years ago
  • DeliaTheArtist
  • ClipsFC
    • 0
      ClipsFC  
    • ClipsFC:

      I believe some eluded to that. I am actually more concerned with the fact that Celebrities and Internet marketers are now trying to commercialize a great concept such as Twitter. They did the same thing with YouTube and it took 2 years for Tube to clean up the mess. It's a great tool, as you mentioned yesterday in response to me about getting feedback from Staff at Current. I just would hate to see that media get ruined for the old dollar. Thanks for your time, again! :)

    • 3 years ago
  • DeliaTheArtist
  • moosefly24
    • 0
      moosefly24  

    • "I complained, I wrote, I don't care anymore. I am a Broadcaster, I post articles and if 1 person gets some information from it, that makes me happy..."

      "Broadcasting" to one person. Ha ha ha! I thought this was called narrowcasting now.

      This item stayed in my CurrentTV Google box just long enough for me to remove the add-on entirely from my iGoogle page. Bye-bye CurrentTV, you can broadcast to Aston Kutcher's ego all you want.

    • 3 years ago
  • wmorrison13
  • henrydgaskins
  • smurph25
  • MiguelSanchez
  • 02
  • jay_ct
  • revolutioninamerica
  • Wessagusset_Oracle
  • AmourTerreux
    • 0
      AmourTerreux  

    • It's still a STUPID ASS GIMMICK. He makes 100,000.00 a photoshoot, and he's SOOO considerate to donate ALL that money to a foundation, Give me a break.

    • 3 years ago
  • DeliaTheArtist
  • iamfree
  • DeliaTheArtist
  • iamfree
  • DeliaTheArtist
    • 0
      DeliaTheArtist  

    • Devil's Advocate Time:

      This was a stunt to raise awareness for the causes that were being donated to, which, BTW, is the 'Malaria No More' fund, he gave $100,000 to it.

      Sure, he can just give the money with no attention on it, but the reason to generate interest is to raise awareness of the cause. Instead, you're all focusing on how this can translate into some kind of doomsday cultural clusterfuck of bullshit. You're missing the point.

      Maybe if you could get thousands of people aware of what you were doing and get thousands of dollars put towards a cause you are passionate about, you'd do it. Maybe you should be thinking of how to do that instead of bitching on Current about how this "isn't news" -very judgmental on a site where we all fancy ourselves journalists of some kind, eh?

      The interesting, societal, cultural part of this is that we were involved- well, maybe not any of you because Twitter is so stupid and pointless and nonsense to y'all as well.

      Look at things from a different perspective.

    • 3 years ago
  • uroborus8
  • DeliaTheArtist
    • 0
      DeliaTheArtist  
    • DeliaTheArtist:

      "$100,000 is a small price to pay for enormous publicity" But wait, people easily pay that FOR publicity. Again, if you could generate that much interest for a cause you were passionate about, you wouldn't? This isn't even that "questionable"- who's hurt in this situation?

      Bigger win for Kutcher, TWITTER and CNN- and so what? Maybe he will make more challanges and donate more money, maybe more people will go on Twitter, maybe more people will watch CNN.

      Hell, VSiskos even edited in information so that other people could donate. this Having trouble seeing the downside here!

    • 3 years ago
  • lucidstone
    • 0
      lucidstone  
    • DeliaTheArtist:

      Hi Delia, I respectfully disagree with your assessment.

      If this was actually a pod detailing the work that was being done by the charity and the need for more people to contribute to their cause . . . then I would agree with you.

      But this pod is much more focused on the celebrity than it is about the charity, it's just a minute of him talking "We can do this! I'm not going to calm down!" nonsense. This pod is more of an endorsement of Twitter and the celebrity himself than it is an endorsement of awareness for the charity or even malaria for that matter . . . hence my complaint about the lack of substance here.

      Hell, they could have inserted any charity name and it would have been the exact same pod.

      More than anything else though, I find objection in the direction that Current is taking to become more mainstream . . . and I see this pod as well as the Lindsay Lohan eHarmony pod that was placed as "featured news" by the same staff member to be symptoms of this direction.

      Other symptoms are the new advertisements and the format used for their new movie review show, which is far to plasticy, polished, and E! channel-ish, imo . . . and it is set up in a way that could eventually become nothing more than an advertisement for various hollywood interests, like what happened with the G4 channel.

      You might think that Current's staff would automatically be above the trap of conflicting interests, but then I would point to Ben Hoffman. He had stellar reviews of "Drunk History" and then appeared in their next show. Is this necessarily wrong, no. But this does show a conflict of interest.
      http://current.com/items/89181144_cewebrity-profile-drunk-history.htm
      http://www.youtube.com/user/DrunkHistory

      Anywho, after watching 2 channels that I loved be destroyed by the pursuit of going mainstream, TechTV and G4, I am very much concerned about the future of Current and am sensitive to the falling level of quality . . . such as this pod.

      Maybe I'm stretching Delia (and please tell me if you think I am), but when I connect the dots like this . . . I very much don't like the picture that I see.

      PS. If by any chance the Current staff is reading this . . . we are still waiting for the re-implementation of the Science category on the main page as was promised.
      http://current.com/items/89845633_current-com-craps-on-science.htm

    • 3 years ago
  • cztheday
    • 0
      cztheday  
    • DeliaTheArtist:

      Delia, it is very nice that he contributed money to the cause and that the purpose of this effort was to raise awareness of the fight against malaria. But when you take everyone to task for failing to see the event from a "different perspective" you are kind of missing the point that they ARE seeing it from a different perspective. Theirs. Not yours. Not only could he have just given the money, he also could have picked a different way of garnering publicity. If the people posting here thought this was a particularly shallow way to do so, aren't they entitled to say so?

      But of course the REAL issue here is that someone needs to tell Ashton after ten years of trying, that mustache is simply NOT going to "fill in"... There is no shame in it, man, puberty works differently for different guys...

    • 3 years ago
  • uroborus8
    • 0
      uroborus8  
    • DeliaTheArtist:

      I would agree with you if that's what the spin was. During the media chatter aftermath that follows every brain numbing American cultural bump in the road, no one is talking about the charity. Everyone is talking about three things: Twitter, Kutcher, and CNN.

    • 3 years ago
  • DeliaTheArtist
    • 0
      DeliaTheArtist  
    • DeliaTheArtist:

      @lucid My assessment here is less about Current on the whole and more about this particular stunt itself. But, yes, Current is becoming more popular and mainstream and they have done some stuff I'm not happy about, like partnering with McDonalds and so on. When that happens, I post about it and get the community to chime in so the staff can see exactly how we feel about it. I urge you to do the same; why not upload a webcam or something about how you feel, the commercialization, etc? I bet you get a lot of responses!

      @ cztheday "you are kind of missing the point that they ARE seeing it from a different perspective. Theirs. Not yours." Obviously everyone is looking at it from their own perspective- the overwhelming opinion was in the negative, hence my asking to look at it from a different perspective- that is, a different one than their own.

      "If the people posting here thought this was a particularly shallow way to do so, aren't they entitled to say so?" Yes of course, and aren't I entitled to rant about it? We could play the "everyone is entitled to their opinion and their opinion of other people's opinions" game all day. Of COURSE anyone can say whatever they want, I don't think I ever claimed otherwise.

      My main point here is that as Uro said, everyone here is focusing on the celebrity aspect. If anyone actually watched the Larry King episode after Ashton won they talked at length about the charity, malaria, Twitter and society, etc. The Current community is CHOOSING to focus on the celebrity aspects of this, but why? IS this really that shallow- allowing people to participate in a highly publicized voting contest in which the winner donates money to charity? What in the world is wrong with that?

    • 3 years ago
  • lucidstone
    • 0
      lucidstone  
    • DeliaTheArtist:

      to: Delia

      If Ashton did go on Larry King and was raising substantial awareness for the charity itself and the very real problem of malaria in developing countries . . . then I would agree with you that the stunt itself is a good thing. (I personally haven't seen that coverage)

      However, my complaint isn't with the stunt. My complaint is with this POD submitted and "featured" as news. The pod itself is crap and it provides little to no substance. (much like the Lindsay Lohan eHarmony pod submitted and featured by the same staff member just a couple days ago)

      It's the "pod" that is focused on the celebrity, twitter, and cnn . . . and not the charity, and I think that is why the people on this thread are focused on those aspects of the stunt and not the promotion of the charity itself.

      If the pod focused on the charity, you would have a very different response from the Current community.

      The title is simply "Ashton Out-Twitters CNN" and the title says it all. From the pod's point of view, the charity is little more than a sidenote. It COULD have been a meaningful pod that covered the malaria problem and the work of the charity . . . but it failed in this regard.

      If this pod was submitted by a random user and was voted it's way onto the top 20 by the community, then I wouldn't be nearly so critical of the work of a random user.

      But this pod was brought to us by Current and was promoted by Current, and my standards for them are high . . . and from the same organization that brings us Vanguard, this is an embarrassment.

      PS. Thank you for playing the devil's advocate (it's always been my favorite advocate) and it's good to provide an alternative point of view; but, I personally think it's missing the point in regards that the subject here is the quality of the pod and not the stunt itself.

    • 3 years ago
  • EllenCowell
  • DeliaTheArtist
    • 0
      DeliaTheArtist  
    • DeliaTheArtist:

      @ EllenCowell Wow, what a well thought out comment! You've convinced me, I'm just sooooo full of crap! Way to go, you've reached middle school mentality- a Golden Star for you!

      @lucid I'll agree to what you are saying in some ways- perhaps Current Staff could have focused on the more important aspect of this story, though he does add in the information on the charity and how to donate.

      I'm not one for celebrity news and I don't want to see Current turn into that, but I think we have to be open minded about what is "news" and what's important and relevant to society. We should also be open minded about...fun! This stunt was a fun way to raise awareness for things- perhaps the celebrity aspect of it backfired in some ways. Indeed, perhaps that's another aspect to this entire story!

      However I also disagree with the assertion (not necessarily that you made) that the News section is total garbage just because a few celebrity stories get featured. There is still a LOT of interesting news to be seen regardless if Ashton or Lindsey or whoever gets a few hours at the top of the homepage.

      Just because Current posts or features a few things the community doesn't like doesn't mean the whole site is destined for doom. But it IS good to have responses like this, because it lets the Current staffers know what we want and how we feel. Keep on bitching, they DO listen!

    • 3 years ago
  • lucidstone
    • 0
      lucidstone  
    • DeliaTheArtist:

      to: ellencowell

      Delia isn't full of crap, she has a difference of opinion that is rather well supported (though I disagree with some of it) and I respect her for standing up and expressing that opinion, especially when it contrasts with what the vast majority of people are saying.

      Furthermore, being in the minority is not an indicator that a person is wrong . . . hell, I'm usually concerned when I'm in the majority because "most" people are idiots and miss the relevant details.

      to: Delia

      I'm glad you put the disclaimer, "not necessarily that you made", because I didn't. =) There are still plenty of good stories of substance on the news page, this pod is just not one of them.

      This entire site is a news site and there is a place for entertainment news on the entertainment pages . . . and this pod is definitely more entertainment news than it is what I would call "real" news of substance.

      The awareness promoted by the staff member's comments was minimal at best, and the focus is very much not on the charity or malaria . . . making this less news of substance and more entertainment news . . . in my opinion.

      I don't think Current is necessarily doomed, but I am very concerned with the direction it is taking and what I see as the drop in quality.

      PS. You are far more diplomatic then I normally am, I could probably learn something in that regard. =)

    • 3 years ago
  • ashgallagher
    • 0
      ashgallagher  
    • DeliaTheArtist:

      the problem i have w/ this is the fact that he's investing the money in africa, the "celebrity thing to do." - i also don't get why he would just give them a handout of $ and not take the time to go down there, and actually work, play, and assist real people with real problems. it's not news worthy...it's not raising awareness- it's kutcher saying "look at me! i kicked cnn's ass and i'm GIVING to poor people with diseases."

      and here's the other catch- aren't contest supposed to be about the humiliation of the loser?

      i don't think that it was a "worthy" thing to do at all- a different perspective? how about people bored w/ the current entertainment news, so when larry king challenged kutcher- so they all hopped on the bandwagon to create some. really?

    • 3 years ago
  • grassroutes
  • AmourTerreux
  • AmourTerreux
  • uroborus8
  • Bigdog_mike
    • 0
      Bigdog_mike  

    • The reason I am saying this is news, is because I believe TWITTER fixed the race... thats right, after I heard all this JAZZ about the twitter race I decied I wanted CNN to win, so I went and added the CNN account, and went to Ashtons account and attempted to REMOVE him, and guess what, I couldn't!
      and, as far as I know, I was not the only one who could not remove him from my followings...
      really whack twitter really whack

    • 3 years ago
  • ClipsFC
    • 0
      ClipsFC  

    • I complained, I wrote, I don't care anymore. I am a Broadcaster, I post articles and if 1 person gets some information from it, that makes me happy.
      @ Hi NKeg - we settled ; )
      @ Jan - You get responses on emails? 1 month I yet have to get a response.

    • 3 years ago
  • DeliaTheArtist
    • 0
      DeliaTheArtist  
    • ClipsFC:

      "You get responses on emails? 1 month I yet have to get a response." Are you talking about Current?

      Ironically enough for this post, the best way I've found to get quick answers and feedback from Current is...Twitter!

    • 3 years ago
  • sk8bs55
    • 0
      sk8bs55  

    • lol, you do realize that you don't even know these people, right? you do realize that in the grand scheme of things you are just as small and insignificant as the rest of us, right? it is not how much you have it is what you do with it. twitter is a tool that can be used to network and organize movements and events. this whole thing is bigger than you Kutcher!

    • 3 years ago
  • sk8bs55
    • 0
      sk8bs55  

    • LAME. epic fail. are you serious? is he actually getting excited about this? quit making up reasons to donate money and "just do it." otherwise, who honestly cares.

    • 3 years ago
  • nkeg87
    • 0
      nkeg87  

    • While I disagree that this is news as well, like I said on ClipsFCs' post that was on the front page before [So instead of reposting almost the exact same topic but in video for, a comment on that thread with this video would have sufficed] at least Ashton was smart enough to use it for awareness. CNN donated nets to the cause and Ashton gave money. And hopefully other people and organizations did or will too. Its not a completely worthless story but it probably shouldnt be a featured story on the front page.

    • 3 years ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • My sentiments exactly. Insignificant garbage. And notice the MO of this News section of late. They put this garbage on tv and in the "featured" section, then when it gets taken off it automatically goes to #1 and stays there, while they continue to feature the same people here over and over again, even if they post something else someone already posted here, or regardless of how vapid it is. I think if your entry is "featured" here, once it gets moved it should be gone from the countdown to make room for others. I actually do sometimes wonder why I even bother coming to this section. But why even bother to complain either when you will only be told by the same staff member that the station is "working out the kinks" to get to something better and to be patient.

    • 3 years ago
  • lucidstone
    • 0
      lucidstone  

    • VSiskos, I am very much starting to think that you shouldn't be allowed to be an editor in the news department. First Lindsay Lohan's stupid parody of eHarmony as "featured news", and now this???

      I thought Current was supposed to stand for substance . . . and this crap is utterly meaningless. If I wanted this kind of "news" . . . I would have turned on the E! channel.

      [edit] Here's the link to the Lindsay Lohan eHarmony pod that was recently "featured" as news:
      http://current.com/items/89971062_lindsay-lohans-eharmony-profile.htm

    • 3 years ago
  • clownpuncher
  • FrankyZemo
  • freshnessmatters
  • charfman
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