diff --git a/tweepy/binder.py b/tweepy/binder.py
index 979b82be3..e62e9c521 100644
--- a/tweepy/binder.py
+++ b/tweepy/binder.py
@@ -156,8 +156,7 @@ def execute(self):
             self.api.last_response = resp
             if resp.status != 200:
                 try:
-                    #TODO: parse error message
-                    raise Exception
+                    error_msg = self.api.parser.parse_error(self, resp.read())
                 except Exception:
                     error_msg = "Twitter error response: status code = %s" % resp.status
                 raise TweepError(error_msg)
diff --git a/tweepy/parsers.py b/tweepy/parsers.py
index de6ce1bc7..8599501b2 100644
--- a/tweepy/parsers.py
+++ b/tweepy/parsers.py
@@ -16,6 +16,14 @@ def parse(self, method, payload):
         """
         raise NotImplementedError
 
+    def parse_error(self, payload):
+        """
+        Parse the error message from payload.
+        If unable to parse the message, throw an exception
+        and default error message will be used.
+        """
+        raise NotImplementedError
+
 
 class JSONParser(Parser):
 
@@ -36,6 +44,9 @@ def parse(self, method, payload):
         else:
             return json
 
+    def parse_error(self, payload):
+        return self.json_lib.loads(payload)['error']
+
 
 class ModelParser(JSONParser):