Four Rudy Giuliani's on Twitter

I saw this earlier today on Meet the Press, and meant to write about it.

Rudy Giuliani is being interviewed by Chuck Todd, who cites a tweet from Giuliani.

Giuliani says that tweet wasn't by me - that there are four accounts impersonating him on Twitter. Todd says ok, drops the question, and moves on to something else.

What's going on?

Well, if you look for Giuliani on Twitter, you'll indeed find four accounts - actually, more than four - none of which have the coveted blue check mark, which indicates that the account was verified in some arcane way by Twitter.  Donald Trump's account has the check - and that's how we know that @realDonaldTrump  is really Donald Trump and @realDoneldTrump  is not.

I'm too lazy to paste the four bogus Giuliani accounts here - you can easily find them yourself - but, since indeed none have verifying check marks, I'll buy that none are really Giuliani.  But this begs the question of: why doesn't Giuliani get his own, real verified account?

Chuck Todd, as he often does, failed to follow up when Giuliani denounced the tweet as not his.   So we're left guessing why Giuliani doesn't have a check mark.   Is he on Twitter by some other name? Did Twitter not deign to give Giuliani a check mark?  (Hey, it happens - I don't have check mark on my @PaulLev account either.)

But whatever the reason, the result led to a signal moment in television news today, when the flagship Sunday news show of them all - Meet the Press debuted on NBC in 1947 - had to withdraw a question to a guest because it was about a tweet that in fact the guest didn't make, even though there are four accounts on Twitter tweeting under the guest's name.

More evidence for what I've said in McLuhan in an Age of Social Media about Twitter having toppled television as the cutting edge medium for delivery of news, and everyone other than the people on television knowing this.

Give Shuster a Shot at MSNBC's 1600 Pennsylvania Ave

Politico.com reports that David Gregory, who will be taking the helm on Meet the Press, will be moving on from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, formerly Race to the White House, on MSNBC. David Shuster will be filling in for this week, or until a successor is announced.

First, I'll miss David Gregory on Pennsylvania Ave/Race - his show was one of the most crisp, informative on all of television, low in histrionics, high on the exposition and debate of useful opinions. In many ways, it's been my favorite on all of TV.

But David Gregory therefore certainly merits his promotion to Meet the Press, where his talent for cool, intelligent interview will well serve the classic show and the American people.

And what's to become of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? I'm watching David Shuster on the show right now, and he's doing a fine job. Indeed, though he had at least one misspeak in the two years we have just concluded of election coverage - regarding Chelsea Clinton's campaigning for Hillary - that wasn't the end of the world, and Shuster came back to do consistently excellent, top-notch reporting and hosting (of regular afternoon programs, and subbing for evening programs, like 1600). Shuster has shown himself tough, able to ask big politicians incisive questions, and do this with style and humor.

I don't know who else MSNBC is considering, but I say, give Shuster a shot at 1600 Pennsylvania MSNBC job.