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Rich Cimini Accused of using fake Twitter account to discredit fellow writers


JoeC36

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According to John B of GangGreenNation.com and supported by (among others) Brian Bassett of SNY's TheJetsBlog.com, there is a strange scandal mounting in New York Jets land.

Rich Cimini of ESPN, who writes primarily about the New York Jets, has apparently been caught red-handed running a fake Twitter account that he uses to parody and slander other beat writers.

According to the reports, Cimini runs a Twitter account (@steiny55) that masquerades as Jake Steinberg (true account @steiny31) of TheJetsBlog.com. The account has also been used to slander Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News and Jane McManus ofESPNNewYork.com.

In one of the more bizarre occurrences in recent Twitter history, Cimini accidentally posted legitimate breaking news about Jets linebacker Calvin Pace from his fake account. The post was then deleted from the fake account and reposted under Cimini's official account, but not before the tweet was noticed and screen-shotted.

Cimini is reportedly denying the accusation, although the evidence seems both comical and convincing. Commented Bassett:

I don't possess direct knowledge, but there's evidence it's a member of the press. I'm around the Jets beat very infrequently, but it doesn't take much time to get a sense just how dysfunctional it is as a group, so much so that someone would waste time making fun of genuinely good people. Even if they try and couch it as just in fun, the person responsible for the account spent a preseason
gameday
tweeting over 70 times rather than doing their job, that tells me all I care to know.

The type of content being produced by this beat writer's fake account includes direct attempts to hurt the reputations of other Jets beat writers, such as this one:

Is there any fan, even a casual one, that feels
Manish
Mehta
knows more about football than they do?

Either Cimini just got caught in quite the embarrassing predicament, or there is another beat writer out there who has pulled off a masterful frame job. Either way, it makes for a strange set of events on Twitter.

http://bleacherrepor...twitter-account

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"Is there any fan, even a casual one, that feels Manish Mehta knows more about football than they do?

This is 100% true and accurate. Cimini should've had the nerve and gumption to put his name to this rather than hide in a fake account. Mark Bowden of Blackhawk Down fame ealry in his career found himself dumped onto the beat of covering the Eagles with only the msot basic of football knowledge. He was lucky that Andy Reid and other coaches took some time to explain what was really going on in the 11 on 11 tape he was watching instead of merely covering the highlights and scoring plays. There seem to be a lot of writers who care more about personalities, mash in a few stats and quotes and call it a day. Mehta(and frankly most of the staff of especially the Daily News like Gary Myers) don't seem to cover much beyond the superficial.

One example-early vs. the Rams, Rob Turner,a good OL guy the Jets dumped as is there habit, was brutalizing the Jets' DL as the Rams center. Dumbass Schitty inexplicably got away from running Stephen Jackson down the Jets' throat after the 1st drive. Despite a former player that was usefel and frankly needed beating up his former team there wasn't a mention of any of it in any NY papers. it was mentioned on the SNY psotgame, which shockiingly despite Adam Schein is a pretty good show. And why would there be; nobody in an era of ESPN crap media cares about the trenches, the tehnique, the strategy. Better and way easier to put a mike in front of Bart Scott and listen to a hyena whine.

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Someone got me a subscription to that Dan Leberfeld fish wrap Jets Confidential as a present.. Anyway in one of his recent columns he was talking about the cantankerous relationships that exist between the writers. Manish and that chick apparently hate each other.

I remember thinking it was amusing that Leberfeld actually had dedicated a section of the paper to writer gossip. I definitely believe Cimini did this but fail to see why it's a big deal.

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Cimini is set on crash-and-burn this season, just like the team is

Hopefully, the Jets get a new coach, front office, and beat writer at ESPN. Time for a clean slate, a fresh start.....

BD

Your a pro at making up quotes, call them anonymous and give it a shot. Even you can't be worse then the current crop of beat writers.

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I SAW CIMINI get onto the Jets GameDay Blog during the season opener against the Bills, and start to tear down Santonio Holmes.

That was......until he caught a first half touchdown, and the rout was on.

Then he ran away, like a little girl.....

BD

Yeah, because if there's one guy who's proven everything wrong about Cimini's Jets Are A Joke schtick, it's Santonio Holmes.

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This makes me want to sign up for twitter and follow the fake steiny. I actually tried to sign up once but it was that TEETER game on my phone and not TWITTER...after an hour of trying to move that marble around the board I totally forgot that I had intended on signing up for the TWITTER but this has renewed my interest. I hope my HTC EVO has enough RAM to handle the Twitter because I am running VEEERRRRRY low on the RAM....

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Link no longer works- looks like someone got sent a cease letter from ESPN.

The article is still up on Gang Green Nation.

EDIT: Nevermind I get what you are saying, the Bleacher Report article is gone.

Edited by Maxman
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