Critic Richard Roeper Suspended by Chicago Sun-Times After Buying Twitter Followers

Roeper's name came up in the New York Times investigation into prominent people padding their social media accounts with fake followers.

Film critic Richard Roeper's reviews and columns will not be published by the Chicago Sun-Times as an investigation is conducted into his Twitter following, the paper announced Monday.

Roeper was one several prominent journalists, sports stars, politicians and celebrities who had paid to increase their Twitter followers with fake accounts, according to a New York Times report published over the weekend. Roeper's Twitter following currently numbers over 225,000, but it was not specified by the Times report how many of those followers were fake.

In a statement, the 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.”

A highly influential film critic, Roeper co-hosted the television series At the Movies with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, succeeding Gene Siskel after his death. He has written for the Sun-Times, on a variety of topics, since 1982.