As I said earlier, here we go again:
A college student who received an obscene photo from Rep. Anthony Weiner’s Twitter account says she’s never met the married Queens politico – and backed his contention they’re both victims of online pranksters.
“I have never met Congressman Weiner, though I am a fan,” Gennette Cordova, 21, of Seattle, Wash., told The Daily News Sunday in an interview. “I’ve never been to New York or to DC.”
She also issued a lengthy statement, complaining about how she’s been characterized on blogs and other web sites.
“I have seen myself labeled as the ‘Femme Fatale of Weinergate,’ ‘Anthony Weiner’s 21-year-old coed mistress’ and ‘the self-proclaimed girlfriend of Anthony Weiner.’ … All of this is so outlandish that I don’t know whether to be pissed off or amused, quite frankly,” she wrote.
READ CORDOVA’S FULL STATEMENT TO THE DAILY NEWS HERE.
The online drama began Friday when a lewd photo appeared in Weiner’s Twitter stream addressed to Cordova but visible to all 40,000 of his Twitter followers.
The photo was a crotch shot of a man in form-fitting briefs that left little to the imagination.
It was quickly deleted and Weiner, who was in the middle of Twittering about hockey, said he’d been hacked.
“More Weiner Jokes for all my guests,” he Tweeted.
It’s worth quoting this from her statement:
I am a 21-year-old college student from Seattle. I have never met Congressman Weiner, though I am a fan. I go to school in Bellingham where I spend all of my time; I’ve never been to New York or to DC. The point I am trying to make is that, contrary to the impression that I apparently gave from my tweet, I am not his girlfriend. Nor am I the wife, girlfriend or mistress of Barack Obama, Ray Allen or Cristiano Ronaldo, despite the fact that I have made similar assertions about them via Twitter.
There have never been any inappropriate exchanges between Anthony Weiner and myself, including the tweet/picture in question, which had apparently been deleted before it reached me. I cannot answer the questions that I do not have the answers to. I am not sure whether or not this letter will alleviate any future harassment. I also do not have a clear understanding as to how or why exactly I am involved in this fiasco. I do know that my life has been seriously impacted by speculation and faulty allegations. My reputation has been called into question by those who lack the character to report the facts.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.