Stephen Fry: Twitter helps me avoid journalists

Stephen Fry seen in central London on December 3, 2012. One of the joys of having six million followers on Twitter is never having to talk to journalists, Fry said in a foul-mouthed rant against a hack who questioned whether he wrote his own Tweets. (AFP/File)

LONDON (AFP) – One of the joys of having six million followers on Twitter is never having to talk to journalists, British actor Stephen Fry said on Friday in a foul-mouthed rant against a hack who questioned whether he wrote his own Tweets.

"One of the chief glories of Twitter, from my point of view, is that it allows me to short-circuit loathsome bottom-feeders of his kind," Fry wrote in a blog posting.

"If I do a TV chat show, or a radio interview people are free to think I'm a wanker, because at least it's me they're listening to or watching.

"Not some 'profile' version of me filtered through the envious, mean-spirited spite of an arse-hole journalist whose only attainment is the ability to sneer."

Fry, also a gay rights campaigner who recently called for Russia to be barred from hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics over its "barbaric" anti-gay legislation, was responding to a diary column in the Daily Telegraph newspaper, headlined "Does Stephen Fry write his tweets?"

Fry said it was no secret that he promoted charities through his Twitter feed, and that he agreed with them when to send a Tweet so they could prepare their servers for the inevitable surge of traffic.

"The fact is this. No one else on earth knows my Twitter password. Every tweet I make is my own aside from (obvious to anyone with the wit to see them) these charitable tweets that I have consented to post," he wrote.

Addressing the author of the story directly, Fry added: "Do you actually even know how Twitter works, you boil-in-the-bag scum, you purulent tit, you nauseating anus?"

Fry, who shot to fame in a TV sketch show with Hugh Laurie and in British comedy "Blackadder", is one of Britain's best-known actors and has written several books.