Don’t blame the messenger for the message, or so the old saying goes. For the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Tony Messenger (@tonymess), that seems to be a repeating theme on his Twitter page. Mr. Messenger follows almost all of his followers, and he takes the time to answer questions and criticism. For a political reporter that must be tough. The conservatives and liberals alike think the media should do a better job of covering their side of the story. However, Mr. Messenger takes the time to respond to criticism in a civilized manner, while also being quick to point out inaccurate statements made by people he follows.

Messenger was one of the first people I started following on Twitter, and so far he has responded to all of my questions and comments; something I can’t say about a lot of the “new media social networking” evangelists who criticize the MSM for not being engaged with their audience. Some in the media have decided that Twitter should only be used as a syndication service. They don’t follow anybody back and don’t respond to questions. It would be really nice to see more reporters use their Twitter account like Mr. Messenger does. Sure, it takes some time out of the day to monitor and respond to tweets. And even though newspapers around the country are understaffed and overworked, they should consider givings their reporters some time to directly interact with readers. Every time I pick up the Post-Dispatch and read one of Messenger’s articles, I know he’s only one tweet away if I have a question or comment. And that type of reader connection, I believe, is something that is hard to put a monetary value on.