Press Secretary: "Twitter is a quick medium" - acknowledges that there are other "Robert Gibbs - some are humorous"
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs had a unique Friday press briefing. Honoring a bet with his Canadian counterpart, Gibbs wore a Canadian Olympic Hockey sweater. As the press briefing went on, underneath the Canadian jersey was a USA sweater, which he then displayed 5 minutes later.
The press asked about a Twitter release going out, there was a concern that they didn't get notification of press releases through their traditional means such as email. Gibbs responded that the White House Email service was disputed and felt that getting the information needed to get out and released it via Twitter - its faster sometimes. He did not disclose which tweet sent information release faster than his email notification.
Q One housekeeping question, you made this trip announcement on Twitter this morning. It still hasn’t shown up on any of our usual vehicles through your office officially. Is Twitter now going to become your vehicle of choice to tell us major things --
MR. GIBBS: Part of the reason -- part of the reason I did that, I bet some of you got emails that I sent you several hours after I actually sent them to you because there were some email issues here at the White House and we felt like it was important to get a confirmation of that out.
I would say Twitter is a quick medium to get information out, and we’ll probably use it more often.
Q You know, there are about 20 or 25 other Robert Gibbses on Twitter -- (laughter) -- some of them who deign to use your picture -- I don’t know why -- (laughter) -- or the presidential seal or the podium. Are you concerned that one of these guys is going to hijack your message and, you know, maybe burn you at some point?
MR. GIBBS: No. I will say this, I mean, again, I think if you go to -- I don’t know how many Robert Gibbs there are, but if you go to @presssec, you’ll see that there is a verification for --
Q There is, indeed.
MR. GIBBS: So obviously --
Q Several of them use that -- use a formulation with “presssec” in it, too.
Q They’re very funny.
Press Secretary also acknowledged that there are imposters out there - "look for the verified account'.
MR. GIBBS: I think some of them are quite humorous. I would, again, look for the verification, and of course we only make big announcements in hockey jerseys. So I’d say look for that.
Yes, sir.
For a Twitter rookie, the Press Secretary is learning fast. Press Secretary Gibbs Twitter account is @PressSec