Washington Post writer falls for Twitter hoax

Oh1 It don't stop!

By Michael Calderone

Last week, a Washington Post columnist started a Twitter hoax. This week, a Washington Post columnist fell for one.
Jonathan Capehart, an editorial writer and columnist, took "@RepJackKimble (R-Calif.)"

to task Monday for tweeting that "Bush fought 2 wars without costing taxpayers a dime." Capehart responded in a blog post that President Bush advocated for "two giant tax cuts that weren't paid for and two big wars that were largely kept off the main federal balance sheet." He added a chart from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities to back up his argument.
Although Capehart stands by the budget deficit numbers, neither he nor anyone else can stand by the congressman. A

"correction/clarification" appended to his post says: "The Twitterer RepJackKimble cited below is not a real member of Congress."

So who is "Jack Kimble"?

The Post, following up on its colleague getting duped, reports that the Kimble Twitter writer may be the author of a blog called "That's Right Nate." (The Post cites another blog, "The Political Carnival," for that speculation.) The Post notes that the

Huffington Post has cited the fake congressman before, and had to publish a correction as a result.
The episode serves as an oddly fitting footnote to last week's Twitter-themed controversy at the Post. The paper suspended its sports columnist Mike Wise for publishing fabricated information on Twitter -- after Wise explained that he'd cooked up a fake scoop about Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's suspension from the team to prove a point about how

journalists are quick to use information found Twitter as a source. Other news outlets understandably ran with the scoop because it came directly from a respected Washington Post sportswriter and not anonymously from the Twitter ether — not a sound way, it turns out, to demonstrate the point Wise set out to make.

But Capehart's eagerness — along with that previously shown by other media outlets — to use "Congressman Kimble" as a source shows how false information, publishes via a fake Twitter account, can quickly enter the news cycle. Wise's point is taken.

These days, as journalists blog, tweet and race on the air with the latest incremental bit of news or opinion, such hoaxes are likely to continue.

In late 2008, two filmmakers created "Martin Eisenstadt," a policy expert from a made-up think tank who ended up being quoted by the New Republic, the Los Angeles Times and MSNBC. And this reporter, in a blog post, made the mistake of citing MSNBC's Eisenstadt reporting. The network later corrected its original report.

NOTE: An earlier version of this post repeated the Post's own account, which mistakenly said that TechPresident had published its own correction about reporting Jack Kimble as an actual member of Congress. In reality, the site was reporting on the Huffington Post's correction after that site fell for the hoax. The wording is now corrected.
Story:Washington Post writer falls for Twitter hoax