The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today’s winner is St. Petersburg Times columnist Gina Vivinetto. Vivinetto gets today’s award for putting up a My space page representing herself as Hillsborough County Commissioner Ronda Storms. See Ms. Vivinetto doesn’t like Ms. Storms because she opposed giving support to a gay rights parade.

Here is a web cache of the My space page. Also this is Ms. Vivinetto’s blog.

People masquerade as all sorts of things on the internet. Some of them get caught but many don’t. The St. Petersburg Times fired Ms. Vivinetto and correctly so even though this blog wasn’t connected to her work. Vivinetto is supposed to be a professional journalist, this behavior can’t be tolerated.

Gina Vivinetto is today’s Knucklehead of the Day.

Hat tip- Florida Cracker
Open Post- Jo's Cafe, Bright & Early, Cao's Blog, Outside the Beltway,

St. Petersburg, Florida — The St. Petersburg Times on Thursday night announced the resignation of an arts columnist who admitted to being involved with a fake My Space web site that mocked Hillsborough County Commissioner Ronda Storms.

Gina Vivinetto wrote for the paper’s free tabloid, Tampa Bay Times. The paper says Vivinetto admitted posting several comments on the phony page that appeared to have been created by Commissioner Storms.

Earlier this week Storms asked the county attorney to have My Space remove the page after reading comments that attacked her stand against government recognition of gay pride.

In a brief article to readers, Times Executive Editor Neil Brown said, “Sadly, Gina’s actions irreparably compromised her credibility as a journalist for our company.”

The article says Brown contacted Storms on Thursday to “inform her of the developments.”

Cross posted to Bullwinkle Blog