Last week, an e-mail posing as CNN news alert was “sent to Republican activists in South Carolina” on Jan. 19 before the South Carolina Republican primary, the Daily Caller reported.
The phony e-mail, which “came from an email account made to look like an official CNN account but is not actually affiliated with the news network,” alleged that Newt Gingrich “pressured his ex-wife Marianne Gingrich to have an abortion.”
According to the Daily Caller, CNN doesn’t know “how many people received the false report.” The New York Daily News reported that the e-mail came from the e-mail account “BreakingNews@mail.cnn.com.”
A second phony e-mail was sent purporting to be a press release from Gingrich’s campaign, according to CBS News. That press release included a quote from Gingrich on the “reports that he forced ex-wife Marianne Gingrich to terminate a pregnancy.”
That fake alert came from an e-mail address @newt20l2.com (instead of the real newt2012.com).
Despite the fake news messages, Gingrich won the South Carolina primary.