My new column at CJR examines the excesses of coverage of Hillary Clinton’s first tweet and what it suggests about coverage of her potential 2016 presidential campaign – here’s how it begins:

After more than four years representing the US abroad as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton returned to the domestic political fray last Monday with a tweet from her new @HillaryClinton account. The former first lady, senator, and presidential candidate is one of the most prominent Americans in public life and the early favorite for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. As a result, her every move is considered newsworthy. The celebrity-style coverage she receives can be innocuous, albeit silly, in some cases (Hillary and Chelsea took a selfie!), but the frenzy over her first tweet and wild speculation about its meaning suggest that another Clinton run would exacerbate the political media’s tendencies to overhype trivia and construct flimsy personality-based narratives about politicians.

Read the whole thing for more.