Stephen King can easily show he's real: his publisher can mention his handle, he can print his handle in his books, his web page, facebook page, etc. Similarly

Stephen King can easily show he's real: his publisher can mention his handle, he can print his handle in his books, his web page, facebook page, etc. Similarly for journalists: they can add their twitter link on their author page. Or government officials and .gov sites. They all have trusted sites to use to authenticate. But it's unclear on Twitter without the user doing work. The blue check / verified value accrues almost entirely to Twitter, and improves the user experience for Twitter readers.