By Gustavo Arellano in Politics
Orange County Weekly
July 17, 2009
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/politics/john-campbell-gets-caught-with/index.php
[See also other articles by Gustavo Arellano.]
We usually glaze over any posts on Irvine councilwoman Beth Krom written by The Liberal OC, because the woman can do no wrong in their eyes. But that didn't stop editor Chris Prevatt from helping to out Representative John Campbell's Twitter writer: the king of Orange County sock-puppetry, Matt "Jubal" Cunningham.
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It was never Prevatt's intention to do this. He was pissed off about the tone of a Campbell tweet bashing Krom and asked Cunningham, who's serving as his campaign consultant in his 2010 re-election campaign for the 48th Congressional District (Krom wants the Democratic nomination for that race) for a favor. "I have to believe that this isn't something written by John's Red County consultant Matt Cunningham," Prevatt wrote. "Matt, can you give someone a call and suggest that the campaign stop allowing TWITS to Tweet for Campbell on Twitter."
Sayeth Cunningham in a comment on the post: 'Twas me. Even though Campbell's Twitter account gives all indication it's him who's writing it, not some blogger-for-hire.
Orange County Register editorial writer Steve Greenhut has already slammed Cunningham for writing glowing pieces about Campbell on Red County; Cunningham's response is that he fully identifies himself as a campaign consultant, so it's okay. Our response? Cunningham is notorious for throwing reportorial ethics out the window for issues or people he adores, and I'm not going to mention his most-famous example because, guaranteed, a commentator eventually will. At which point, I'll write "Bingo!"
In the meanwhile, Matt? Get Chuck DeVore to teach Campbell a thing or two about Twitter...
E-mail: GARELLANO@OCWEEKLY.COM
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