This is not intended to be a factual post

Every once in a while, we are treated with a political gaffe that explodes in the media, quickly becoming the popular, fashionable, and overexposed joke of the day.  Gerald Ford tripping, George W. Bush choking on a pretzel, pretty much anything Joe Biden has every said, the list could go on forever.

Sometimes, these gaffes are harmless, the jokes about them are funny, and no real damage is done.  We forget about the mistakes, and they quickly become a thing of the past.

One of the most recent gaffes however, is a much more alarming and perhaps terrifying sign of what’s happened to debate in the U.S. Congress.

While arguing for the removal of  funding for Planned Parenthood from the federal budget, Senator Jon Kyl from Arizona, claimed that “well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does” is abortions.

Pretty alarming statistic, that’s for sure.  Only it’s not true.

It turns out that the number is only 3 percent, and when Kyl’s office was reached for comment, the statement put out read that Kyl’s argument “not intended to be a factual statement.”

Of course, when The Daily Show and The Colbert Report heard of this, they struck comedy gold.  Stephen Colbert has even started a topic on twitter #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement with posts such as “Jon Kyl has a shrine to Scooter from the Muppet Show” and “everything you would only do in the privacy of your own home, Jon Kyl prefers to do on a subway car.”

Since Colbert started the topic, it’s blown up on Twitter, with thousands of users joining in.

The argument could be made that it’s absolutely disgusting that a politician can state wrong information on the Senate floor, and later, instead of offering a correction, only say it wasn’t ever made to be factual, and in essence, admit to lying while representing the people of Arizona.

But I’m sure there are dozens of other people already making that argument.  Instead, I think it’s much more fascinating to think about how the influence of Twitter will affect the situation, and future ones like it. We now have a way for the public to hold onto this remark and make it last longer than usual late night joke cycle lasts.

Just as we’ve seen social media be a huge influence in recent revolutions and political uprisings, we could be starting to see how social media can be used to keep current politicians in check.  No longer will a politician be able to hope no one catches a mistake, or that a gaffe or error will fade with time.  A screw up, an ignorant remark, or a “not factual” statement now can be broadcasted to millions of people, and those people can comment on it, make their own jokes about it, explain their disgust about it, and the entire world has an opportunity to see it.

Jon Kyl is not only going to have to deal with stories and media mentions about the remark itself, but now he’s also going to have to deal with stories about the issue exploding on Twitter.  This remark is quickly turning into something much bigger than he could have ever expected. Fifteen years ago, this might have been a comment that would disappear fairly quickly.  But that’s not the case anymore, and I guess we have Stephen Colbert to thank for that.