Social Media

Revealed! The man behind the fake Rahm Emanuel Twitter feed

What inspired the impersonator, whose feed eclipsed that of the real Rahm Emanuel? “Pure boredom,” he said. Let that be a lesson to you.

By {/%BYLINE%} {%AUTHOR%}Michael Sebastian{/%AUTHOR%} {%TITLE%}Revealed! The man behind the fake Rahm Emanuel Twitter feed{/%TITLE%} {%ALTERNATIVEURL%}{/%ALTERNATIVEURL%} {%IMAGE%}/Resource.ashx?sn=Blank9{/%IMAGE%} {%ROLE%}87d65c27-6e78-4e5c-b423-78d47d4f2768{/%ROLE%} {%KICKER%}Social Media{/%KICKER%} {%CATEGORIESID%}055d8a23-ee23-4f9c-a2f4-df030843f312{/%CATEGORIESID%} {%CAPTION%}What inspired the impersonator, whose feed eclipsed that of the real Rahm Emanuel? “Pure boredom,” he said. Let that be a lesson to you.{/%CAPTION%} {%BODYCOPY%}A great mystery of social media was revealed on Monday. The man behind @MayorEmanuel—a fake Twitter feed that caricatured the foul mouth of Chicago’s new mayor, Rahm Emanuel—revealed himself. The great impersonator is Dan Sinker, an assistant professor of digital journalism at Columbia College in Chicago, according to The Atlantic. With nearly 40,000 followers, Sinker’s @MayorEmanuel outpaced the real Emanuel on Twitter by almost 30,000 followers. The ABC affiliate in Chicago interviewed Sinker on Monday night,, the college professor explained his inspiration for launching the account: It was “pure boredom,” he told reporter Ben Bradley. Let that be a lesson to you: The only thing separating your brand from a parody on Twitter is whether the would-be creator is distracted. Here’s the interview. For further viewing, Ragan.com also published a how-to pitch segment with reporter Ben Bradley. {/%BODYCOPY%} {%ID%}7388{/%ID%} {%DATAID%}3875ac7c-814f-40d4-987f-c4dc0b0e9a83{/%DATAID%} {%CanonicalUrl%}{/%CanonicalUrl%} {%PUBLISHDATE%}3/1/2011 5:01:03 AM{/%PUBLISHDATE%} {%LINK%}https://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/7388.aspx{/%LINK%} {%BYLINE%}
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The man behind @MayorEmanuel—a fake Twitter feed that caricatured the foul mouth of Chicago’s new mayor, Rahm Emanuel—revealed himself.

The great impersonator is Dan Sinker, an assistant professor of digital journalism at Columbia College in Chicago, according to The Atlantic. With nearly 40,000 followers, Sinker’s @MayorEmanuel outpaced the real Emanuel on Twitter by almost 30,000 followers.

The ABC affiliate in Chicago interviewed Sinker on Monday night, and the college professor explained his inspiration for launching the account: It was “pure boredom,” he told reporter Ben Bradley.

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