Want to see how easy it is to get burned trying to keep up with how fast stories move online? Just take a look at how quickly the "Twitter TV show" story exploded, and then zigged and zagged across the digisphere yesterday—leaving some journos red-faced and others looking like pro's.

Here's what happened: At 3:20 am PT on Monday, Variety posts a story saying Twitter is teaming up with some Hollywood producers to "develop" a TV show. It doesn't quote Twitter, only the producers.

The twittosphere explodes. TechCrunch, Mashable, and the Associated Press run stories. HuffPo and the New York Times Web site pick up the AP story. The Washington Post Web site picks up the TechCrunch story. More twittosphere explosion. TechCrunch writes another post, saying they've emailed Twitter and are waiting for more details before "trashing" the idea.

Then, two hours after the AP story, just 14 hours after the Variety post, Twitter posts an official comment on its blog: There is no TV show, just a "lightweight, non-exclusive, agreement with the producers which helps them move forward more freely." BayNewser isn't sure what that means. Maybe that the producers can use the name "Twitter" and have people tweeting on their show? Not clear. But no matter.

In any case, the train has run away. Five hours after the Twitter annoucement, Defamer, which presumably has not heard the announcement, posts a piece about how Twitter is teaming up with a group of "Hollywood geniuses" (their emphasis) to produce a show and offers the following gracious commentary: "We'd like to offer congrats to [Twitter founders Ev] Williams and [Biz] Stone, who, in a desperately misguided effort to monetize their product, just managed to brutally slay their darling in spectacular fashion. The end is nigh fellas. You guys should put in a call to Henry Winkler's people so you can place him on a surf board off the coast of South Africa in the pilot episode, just to get it over and done with."

Ten hours after the Twitter announcement, TechCrunch throws up a third post, which BayNewser expects is the promised trashing. But it's not. Instead, it's an intelligent analysis of where Twitter might be going with such ventures.

Meanwhile, earlier yesterday evening, NYU J-school prof and future-of-journalism thought leader Jay Rosen tweets Twitter employee Chloe Sladden to find out of it the Twitter TV show is real. Late last night, Sladden replies that the lede in the AP story is "misleading" and that Twitter did not announce a show.

Early this morning, Rosen tweets Sladden's reply and starts tweet-tweaking AP writer Frazier Moore about whether he's going to run a correction.

No news from Moore as of press time. Or Variety.

Full timeline of events, after the jump.

Note: Where exact times were not available, BayNewser made a best guess, based on subsequent replies/comments/etc.... These are marked with a: ~ .

MONDAY, MAY 25

3:20 am PT: Variety posts article saying: Twitter "has partnered with Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment to develop an unscripted TV skein."

5:46 am PT: AP TV writer Frazier Moore tweets asking if anyone knows about Twitter TV show.

~ 6 am PT: TechCrunch runs a story on the Variety report.

6:40 am PT: Washington Post picks up TechCrunch story.

~ 9am PT: Social media blog Mashable runs post on the Variety report—gets 454 re-tweets.

1:48pm PT: AP posts story saying: "Twitter... says it wants to be doing a TV series."

This story goes up right around the time Moore tweets that he just talked to show creator Amy Ephron and an exec at the production company. Also notes "No deal for it yet."

~ 3:50 PT: HuffPo picks up AP story.

~ 4 pm PT: TechCrunch's Michael Arrington says he has not yet received a reply from an email he sent to Twitter and will wait for more details before writing "the inevitable blog post trashing the idea."

3:50 pm PT: New York Times picks up the AP story.

5:45 pm PT: Twitter makes official comment via its blog: "There is no official Twitter TV show." Instead, writes Biz Stone: "We have a lightweight, non-exclusive, agreement with the producers which helps them move forward more freely."

~ 7 pm PT: Mashable runs update, based on Twitter blog post—gets 604 re-tweets.

~ 8pm PT: NYU j-school prof Jay Rosen asks Chloe Sladden at Twitter via Twitter whether the Twitter TV story is true.

~ 10 pm PT: Sladden tweets that the lede in the AP story is "misleading," Twitter did not announce show.

~ 10:58 pm PT: Defamer posts their assessment of the Twitter TV show idea (and references the NYT post of the AP story).

TUESDAY, MAY 26

3:13 am PT: TechCrunch posts its analysis of what Twitter's up to.

4:17 am PT: Rosen tweets that Sladden says Twitter did not announce a show.

4:47 am PT: Rosen tweets more info on AP's "misleading" post.

7:15 am PT: Rosen tweet-tweaks Frazier Moore, asking him if he's going to correct his story.

As of press time, no updates from Moore. Or Variety.

Image credit: ktpupp (Flickr)