The Chicago Sun-Times will not publish columns or reviews authored by Richard Roeper as the newspaper investigates the legitimacy of Roeper’s sizable Twitter following.
A New York Times report published over the weekend stated that Roeper had paid to boost his Twitter following with additional accounts, some of them fake.
In a statement issued Monday, Sun-Times Editor-in-Chief Chris Fusco said: “We became aware over the weekend of issues relating to Rich Roeper’s Twitter account. We’re investigating these issues. We will not be publishing any reviews or columns by Rich until this investigation is complete.”
The Times did not say how many of Roeper’s 225,290 followers were paid for. Roeper did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
Days before the New York Times report, the Sun-Times announced that Roeper, who has been with the paper since 1982, would be returning to writing a twice-weekly general interest column in addition to his film reviews.