I Twitter, therefore I am

Someone created a fake Twitter account in the name of Republican pollster Frank Luntz and apparently fooled 2,000 people with it - including Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, assuming these accounts haven't been faked as well.

Kurtz even quoted from the feed in his column.

The faux-Luntz account was launched and maintained by Brian Devine of New Media Strategies, according to Simon Owens of Bloggasm:

The account likely remained unnoticed by Luntz until just recently, when he was apparently contacted by Heritage Foundation employee Robert Bluey

“I was surprised that so many people thought it was real for a ridiculous amount of time,” Devine told me in an interview. “I was really surprised that so many people would take it authoritatively without any verification whatsoever.”

Wait, now you're telling us we have to verify stuff? What a fucking drag.

Incidentally, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann today reported that someone had created a fake Twitter account in his name.

Rough draft

A letter to advertisers saying that the Denver Post will be the only newspaper in town as of March 1 is merely a ... test, according to the agency that oversees the joint operating agreement between the Post and the Rocky Mountain News. Just like pre-writing an obituary, I guess.

Monetizing the news*

Last year, the mayor of Portland hired the news editor of the weekly Portland Mercury as a policy adviser. The fact that the news editor had no relevant experience and just happened to be reporting on an affair the mayor had had with an 18-year-old man... probably just coincidence.

From the Oregonian via Romenesko:

In early 2008, Amy Ruiz was a reporter at the Portland Mercury news weekly when she confronted Sam Adams about his relationship with an 18-year-old man three years earlier.

By the end of the year, Ruiz had joined Adams' staff as a planning and sustainability policy adviser.

The two events have opened Adams and his staff to questions about whether Adams hired Ruiz -- who had no formal experience in planning, policy or as an analyst -- to stop her from digging deeper into the story

-snip-

Although Portland is packed with urban planners looking for a gig, Miller said he wasn't necessarily searching for a technocrat. He wanted someone who could translate the benefits of the city's planning work to the masses.

*Update: Adams has shown an affinity for the press - he's apparently dating Oregonian reporter, and former Los Angeles Daily Journal staffer, Peter Zuckerman.