Team Newt gets snippy over questions about Gingrich's new media savvy #p2

Newt's campaign says he's ready for the new media world. Their actions prove otherwise.
(John-paul Zajackowski/Dreamstime.com)

On Monday, Ben Smith and Maggie Haberman posted a story questioning whether Newt Gingrich and other Republicans were ready to campaign in the new media environment of 2012. Their point was fairly straightforward: much of the potential GOP field has never run in an environment where news breaks as fast as it does now, where a single slip of the tongue is instantly amplified by Twitter and blogs, and where vast video archives make it possible to reveal contradictions and hypocrisy in devastating fashion.

Apparently, Newt-ville took Ben and Maggie's article personally. His campaign got so offended that they dashed off an ill-advised e-mail to Ben saying the article was "out of phase with reality" and boasting about Gingrich's 1.3 million Twitter followers:

It doesn't pass the laugh test. I might say the same about Politico who has little experience covering political campaigns . . . uh, in the Twitter era. In fact, Politico has less than 200k followers on Twitter. That's 1.2 million less than Newt.

I think if you combine Newt's political experience with his obvious ability to maintain a following online, I think you've left your readers with a false impression.

rest at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/15/956600/-Team-Newt-gets-snippy-over-questions-about-Gingrichs-new-media-savvy