Rapper reports during his own arrest with Twitter

In this age of blogs, Facebook and discussion boards, anyone can be a journalist. Sort of.

So, let’s welcome rapper Jim Jones to the news biz. Through Twitter, Jones covered his own arrest in real time early Monday after he was pulled over by police.

What’s Twitter? It’s a free online social network to which you can post messages of up to 140 characters. Imagine sending a cell phone text message to all the world whenever you want.

Jones (the photo is from his Twitter homepage), the Baltimore Police Department, Exhibit A, The Daily Record and I have accounts. So do more than 1.3 million other folks, including President Barack Obama.

According to NorthJersey.com, police in Teaneck, N.J., say they arrested Jones for an unpaid ticket and gave him another one for not driving without a front license plate. The rapper says he wrote Twitter posts (“tweets,” in Twitter speak) while being handcuffed and then booked at the police station.

Jones paid $120 and was released.

On Tuesday, he wrote about the news coverage he’s gotten for his Twitter use: Once again I twitted whn I got pulld over on mon and now its all over th news and news papers in nj sheeesh can’t do nothin right lol ove it

Jones takes his Twitter posts seriously, even if he has to squeeze them to fit in the 140-character limit without the benefit of beats: He advises users to spell-check. But don’t post while driving — that would be wrong, he says.