There are at least two demonstrably false statements issued to the New York Post on behalf of Representative Anthony Weiner by his spokesperson, Dave Arnold.
Here’s the first [emphasis mine]:
The tech-savvy congressman saw the picture almost immediately. He had been tweeting about a hockey game just a few minutes earlier.
An analysis of Rep. Anthony Weiner’s Twitter timeline has already been done here at Big Government that clearly shows Weiner’s Twitter account had been publicly silent for 3 hrs. and 24 mins. prior to the Tweeting of the inappropriate image. Consequently, there was no Tweet about a hockey game “just a few minutes earlier.” Therefore, that statement simply isn’t true.
Rep. Weiner’s spokesman then falsely claims that after removing the image in question, Weiner joked about the incident a mere 15 minutes later. Again, from the Post:
Weiner pulled the shot himself, but not before it had been retweeted and screen-grabbed by several followers. Weiner, a voracious user of Twitter, wrote a humorous response about 15 minutes later.
False.
In fact, on his Twitter account, Weiner appeared to dissemble and bumble about for over an hour before firing off the tweet about his Facebook account being hacked. Here’s a recreation of the timeline, starting with the Tweet Weiner claims was sent by an alleged hacker and ending with the “FB Hacked” tweet:
@RepWeiner @(name redacted) http://yfrog.com/h25m3luj 13 hours, 59 minutes ago reply
@RepWeiner
Killng me!! RT @kknapp1: @RepWeiner that is a tragedy! #EpicGame
13 hours, 54 minutes ago reply@RepWeiner my tivo ate the hockey game! #WhoCanISue?
13 hours, 55 minutes ago reply@RepWeiner @kknapp1 just kill me now.
13 hours, 52 minutes ago reply@RepWeiner
Tivo eats the hockey game and Versus taunts me with endless postgame. #IsThisHell?
13 hours ago reply@RepWeiner
Followers of my lame hockey tweets recall i picked tb and nashville. #NotSoBrilliant
12 hours, 50 minutes ago reply@RepWeiner
Tivo shot. FB hacked. Is my blender gonna attack me next? #TheToasterIsVeryLoyal
12 hours, 36 minutes ago reply
The New York Post also completely ignores Weiner’s earlier twitter reference to the City of Seattle in a Tweet that remains on his feed. For whatever reason, the Congressman added the hashtag #Thats545InSeattleIThink to a Tweet announcing the time of an upcoming appearance on MSNBC. Reportedly, the young woman the lewd photograph was sent to lives in … Seattle.
Also missing from the NY Post’s story is an explanation for how a hacking of Weiner’s Facebook account could lead to a Yfrog image being posted in his public Twitter feed. But by far, the most glaring hole is the question everyone, including Politico, is asking: Has Rep. Weiner reported this alleged hacking to the authorities?
Bottom line: the New York Post has only served to raise more questions about this rapidly developing story.
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