Meet Rahm Emanuel's Fake Tweeter

Foulmouthed page garnered 39K followers
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 28, 2011 5:57 PM CST
@MayorEmanuel: Dan Sinker Outs Himself as Guy Behind Fake Rahm Emanuel Twitter
In this Feb. 22, 2011 file photo, Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel laughs before addressing the crowd in Chicago after his election win.   (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

The potty-mouthed scribe behind the hugely popular—and fake—@MayorEmanuel has outed himself after months of secrecy, reports Mediaite. A lengthy profile in The Atlantic reveals Dan Sinker to be the man behind the Twitter feed, which garnered 39,000 followers as a flamboyant, vulgar narrative of the new Chicago mayor as he campaigned, won, then—seriously—disappeared into a "time vortex." Sinker is the founder of a now-defunct punk rock zine, and his feed, writes Alex Madrigal, represents a new sort of literature.

"Politics is desperate and raw and exhausting," writes Madrigal. "@MayorEmanuel looked at that state of affairs and started cussing, not unlike what a lot of us do when we look at our politics." For his part, Sinker, who told his secret only to his wife and a few friends, says he's glad to be casting off his alter ego: "The train rides became totally paranoia-inducing by the end. I would think, 'Why is that guy looking at my phone? Who is this?' Your brain starts going a little crazy. I’m looking forward to my brain not feeling so crazy.” Read the whole Atlantic article here. (More Rahm Emanuel stories.)

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