Twitter newbie Murdoch learns etiquette the hard way

Twitter newcomer Rupert Murdoch had his first hiccups with the micro blogging site, when he commented that for a broke country, Britain had too many holidays

FP Staff|Jan 03, 2012, 10:36:06 IST

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch who joined Twitter on new years eve, has joined the ranks of celebrities who tweet in haste and live to regret it. In a tweet dated 2 January Murdoch said, "Maybe Brits have too many holidays for broke country!"

[caption id="attachment_170700" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="The controversial Murdoch tweet: Screengrab from Twitter"][/caption]

Mr Murdoch who is currently holidaying on the Caribbean island of Saint Barthelemy, was immediately chastised by his wife Wendi Deng on her own Twitter account. Deng who grabbed media attention when she leapt up and smacked a protestor who tried to smear white foam on Murdoch's face during his appearance before a British parliamentary commission on the News of The World scandal, tweeted, "RUPERT!!! delete tweet!" She followed up with a series of tweets stating, ""EVERY1 @rupertmurdoch was only having a joke pROMSIE !!!" and "Explaining to @rupertmurdoch about being careful with humor (sic) on line. sometimes it comes out as rude!."

Mashable reports that the offending tweet was duly deleted and website ninemsn quoted Deng as saying she is still proud of her 80-year-old husband for joining Twitter.

When Mr Murdoch first opened the account some doubted its authenticity because the mogul has generally tried to stay out of the spotlight and has notoriously poked fun at social networks and online forums. However the account has since been verified.