Gingrich Swears Twitter Followers Are Real
August 2, 2011 by UPI - United Press International, Inc.
DES MOINES, Iowa, Aug. 2 (UPI) — Newt Gingrich’s campaign says he does have 1.3 million Twitter followers, despite charges that some were made up.
On Sunday, the former House speaker and Republican presidential candidate complained to his hometown Georgia newspaper, the Marietta Daily Journal, that the media are ignoring him even though he has six times as many Twitter followers as all other candidates combined.
“We’ve been a little bit like a sailing ship in the middle of a hurricane in which we are sailing straight into the teeth of the media, and that slowed us down,” he said.
Monday, Gawker.com relayed an anonymous source’s claim that some of the Twitter accounts following Gingrich “are inactive or are dummy accounts created by various ‘follow agencies.’”
Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond issued a tweet Monday night denying the charge, the Des Moines (Iowa) Register reports.
He said: “@Newtgingrich’s 1.3 million followers are legitimate. @Gawker ‘s ‘source’ is not. Story untrue.”
Hammond then retweeted another message: “@jclairecantrell I follow @newtgingrich and (last time I checked) I am real. Not only am I real, I am #withNewt for 2012!”
Gingrich, with 1,325,966 followers as of Tuesday morning, has been on Twitter’s recommended and suggested user lists.
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