During my J-Term course earlier this year, Covering the Federal Courts with Twitter, the fake Rahm Emanuel Twitter page was mentioned, @MayorEmanuel. No one knew then that the guy behind the tweets was none other than Columbia journalism professor Dan Sinker.
I’ve never taken a course with Sinker, but a class that hasn’t gone by I haven’t heard his name mentioned from students who have taken his Mobile or Online Journalism courses.
Earlier this week Sinker revealed he was responsible for the @MayorEmanuel twitter that parodied the former White House Chief of Staff and Chicago’s mayor-elect, Rahm Emanuel.
The tweets had people trying to figure out for months who was speaking for Emanuel, with potty-tweets as some have said. The College went into uproar with students proud to be at Columbia and even more, Journalism Department students ecstatic to call Sinker their own.
@MayorEmanuel followed no one, but had 41,467 followers and 1,954 tweets and a bio that reads “Your next motherf#cking mayor. Get use to it, a$$holes.”
In fact, most of @MayorEmanuel’s tweets had frequent use of the F-bomb.
On election night, Sinker tweeted, “And now all I can hear is that music, and suddenly everything just fucking…”
At one point, the real Emanuel statedthat if the person behind the account would stop tweeting and deactivate the account, he would donate $5,000 to the charity of their choice.
When Sinker revealed himself, Rahm announced the charity donation offer was still valid.
@MayorEmanuel’s tweets can be found here, http://twitter.com/mayoremanuel
Since the big reveal, from an article found in The Atlantic, Sinker has been incredibly busy, as if he wasn’t already popular! Good job Sinker, good job!