Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel (right) met his Twitter doppelganger, Dan Sinker, (left) during a talk show on WLS-AM radio on March 2, 2011. (Credit: CBS)
CHICAGO (CBS) – The man who impersonated Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel on Twitter by writing profane messages for thousands of Twitter followers met the real-life Emanuel on Wednesday.
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Columbia College journalism professor Dan Sinker’s comments on Twitter as @MayorEmanuel were so popular that he had more than 40,000 followers – more than Emanuel’s own Twitter page.
Sinker stayed anonymous until earlier this week. Before that, Emanuel had said that if his Twitter doppelganger came forward, he’d donate $5,000 to his favorite charity.
As CBS 2′s Jim Williams reports, on Wednesday, Emanuel met Sinker on “The Roe Conn Show With Richard Roeper” talk show on WLS-AM radio to make good on his promise.
Emanuel said he first heard of his Twitter impersonator when several friends said they thought it sounded like the real him. Emanuel also said that “many times (Sinker) has expressed my sentiments exactly” in his profanity-laced tweets.
The mayor-elect was good-natured, even trying to calm down the very nervous impersonator during the so-called “Twitter Summit.”
Emanuel gave $5,000 to Young Chicago Authors, a program that teaches Chicago Public School students creative writing and poetry.
“What he is doing does something serious in giving kids an outlet to find their voice,” Emanuel said. “And so, I want to support what he’s doing for our kids.”
A charity fund matched that donation and Emanuel managed to squeeze separate donations from Conn and Roeper during the show.
