Followers: 2.3 million
Sample tweet: "More from Interpol: Global alert issued for Gadhafi as well as 15 of his close associates"
If the media deities could reincarnate Walter Cronkite as a Twitter feed, then the CBS anchor would appear in the form of @BreakingNews — the most trusted handle in the Twitterverse. The brainchild of Dutch media entrepreneur Michael van Poppel, @BreakingNews is an exhaustive digest of hard-news events — everything from a tornado spotted in Iowa to the latest death toll in the Syrian crackdown. The operation was bought by MSNBC.com in 2009, but it's still the go-to authority for verified online reports, culled from news agencies and local sources. Like the tree that falls in the forest, a story isn't really news until it's been tweeted by @BreakingNews.