Twitter Posts Aren't Real Journalism, Silly!

Like many newspaper reporters, Tampa Bay beat writer Rick Stroud uses Twitter to connect with his readers and talk about whatever happens to be on his mind—but if you're stupid enough to take his Twits at face value then that's your own stupid fault.

Last Friday, Stroud casually mentioned that the Buccaneers might be"interested" in possibly signing possibly washed up wide receiver Marvin Harrison. Tampa fans were obviously all ... um ... atwitter over this happy information and a few places even re-reported this story as an actual bonafide thing. Big mistake. Blogger Joe Bucs Fan (not to be confused with Joe Buck fans) was a little annoyed that Stroud had to come back on his Twitter to explain the difference between real news and shit that he just makes up on the internet.

"People, if I tweet something bout Marvin Harrison it's agent-driven speculation. If there's news, I'll post it on Tampabay.com. K? Sheesh 5:44 AM May 30th from web

Yeah, come on guys. Can't you tell when a reporter is talking about actual legitimate news and when he's really just helping an agent drum up non-existent buzz about a client? It's not like 85% of all NFL coverage is unfounded speculation about player personnel moves. Next time, just wait until Chris Mortensen writes something on his Facebook wall. That's when you know it's a big scoop.

Rick Stroud Slaps Bucs Fans, Media [Joe Bucs Fan] Rick Stroud (NFLSTROUD) [Twitter]