Esquire Pulls Professor Jeff Jarvis Satire Piece


fourth estate newEsquire pulled a satire piece by the Professor Jeff Jarvis Twitter account late Tuesday night, hours after publication.

The satirical piece made fun of former Politico CEO Jim VandeHei’s Wall Street Journal piece arguing for a third party to run for President.

The Professor Jeff Jarvis Twitter account, run by Rurik Bradbury, skewers tech jargon and Internet culture. The bio describes him as “Hyperglocal thinkfluencer, Journalism 3.0 advocate. Cofounder @ Mogadishu:REinvent unconference. CEO Mogadishu Capital Partners LLC. Not @JeffJarvis.”

The last part references the real-life Professor Jeff Jarvis, a media and tech pundit. Jarvis strongly dislikes having the account share his name and has complained about it online.

This is not the first time a Prof. Jarvis piece has been pulled. Shortly before Al Jazeera America shut down its digital operations, Jarvis wrote a piece calling AJAM one of six “hot media start-ups.” The piece was pulled after editors and executives felt it was “not appropriate.”

This time, though, the post was pulled because of the real Jarvis. Jarvis railed against the article on Twitter and said that it confused readers into thinking he had written it. Jarvis even went so far as to say he needed a lawyer.

Esquire initially responded by saying that the author was a “well-known satirist.” Jarvis then complained about that, saying it makes it seem like he is a “well-known satirist.” Eventually, Esquire pulled the piece.

Neither Esquire nor Jarvis responded to an email for comment.

Jarvis, however, did write a Medium post detailing his anger and said that the incident was stressful enough to almost warrant a visit to the hospital for his heart.

Bradbury responded to the incident on Twitter, asking about what he is able to do next.

Gawker republished the original article, but with Bradbury’s permission. Gawker’s version labels @ProfJeffJarvis as a parody account.


About Tyler

Tyler is the chief media reporter for TKNN, with the news organization since its founding in November of 2010. He has previously served as chief political reporter and chief political anchor for TKNN.

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