Twitter is supposed to save journalism 140 characters at a time. Media people love it, and we love media people, so let's take a look at what the Twitterati have to say for themselves.

At last, Timesman Matt Richtel has explained why he's posing as a female hooker on his personal Twitter account: He's writing a novel, 140 characters at a time. No, no, wait for it — he's invented a new genre of fiction which he's calling the "Twiller." How were people who don't read Editor & Publisher supposed to figure that out? Richtel, belatedly, has grasped the problem: He's just broken voice on Twitter to announce the addition of a plot summary to his blog. Richtel coauthors the clever comic strip Rudy Park under the name Theron Heir, so you'd think his new project has a chance. But his online tale fails. I asked Valleywag writer Paul Boutin, who moonlights as a Wall Street Journal book reviewer, to explain why:

Matt Richtel, the New York Times reporter and author of Hooked, has whored himself out on Twitter this week. The messages read as if they're written both by a hooker and the murderous john she meets, somewhere on the road to Denver for the Democratic National Convention. Tweeting in drag as a prostitute. Is it an old-fashioned Internet man stunt? Part of Richtel's recent day-job obsession with covering the Internet sex industry? Or is it some kind of experiment for his moonlight career as a novelist? Whatever Richtel's motive, the result is deeply creepy. His most whorish updates follow:

If TheEroticReview.com is "Amazon.com for prostitutes" (as dubbed by Matt Richtel in the New York Times), do customers get "free delivery for orders over $100", asks Salon.com's Broadsheet. We agree with Salon's assessment — TER is really more like Yelp — unless there's some exciting new feature to Amazon Prime that the Times was briefed on under embargo.

On Monday night at the Webby Awards, New York Times staff accepted their prize with the words, "Eliot Spitzer we thank you." Covering hooker drama went well for the paper last March, and the obsession still moves them. For the last three weeks, the Times has been investigating the complaints of escorts, first reported on Valleywag: that Dave Elms, the now-jailed founder of TheEroticReview.com, extorted sex from them in exchange for reviews on his popular site. According to a series of leaked emails, the story is currently stalled, as reporter Matt Richtel and his stringers can't find women who will speak on the record about their dealings with Elms. We verified the San Francisco-based Timesman's interest from Internet-working escorts, who are reluctant to give the paper interviews that will only further expose their business to scrutiny for all the wrong reasons. They have, however, offered Valleywag their preemptive corrections. Here's the story they hope the Times won't write:

We won't have Katie Hafner (pictured here in a 2000 appearance on PBS's News Hour with Jim Lehrer) to kick around anymore. Her former colleague Sharon Waxman, who left the paper in January, mentioned in an aside to an ode to fellow hacks hurt by the decline of the fishwrap business that Hafner had been laid off. If it were up to us, we'd have given "Blog 'Til They Drop" author Matt Richtel the pink slip. Just imagine: He might have to blog for a living, with all the perils implicit therein.

"Nat Idle, a medical student turned journalist, sits in a San Francisco cafe when a woman puts a folded note on his table. Nat picks up the note, walks to the door to follow her, opens the note and reads: Get out of the Cafe, NOW! The cafe explodes." So begins Hooked by the Timesman who warns blogging can kill. [Matt Richtel]

New York Times tech writers are confused, or at least a little bit lazy. Over Christmas Eve they posted to the Bits blog a post titled, "Questions We Thought, But Didn't Ask, in 2007." Then, "A Few More Questions" And then, "More Questions." Reading them, it's clear that coming up with questions required no reporting, little research and maybe five minutes. Why didn't we think of that? One very special correspondent could have actually seen his wife over Christmas. Here are their top three questions — and our helpfully provided answers.

Hooked, the first novel from NY Times technology journalist Matt Richtel, graces the San Francisco Chronicle's bestseller list. [SF Chronicle]