Rick Sanchez made news defending CNN's Iran coverage against a Twitter mob on the air Monday. But it turned out he had a less flattering story to tell behind the scenes.

The social-media obsessive defended his network's coverage in no uncertain terms when in front of the camears. "The story was reported every hour on CNN in some form or fashion," he said during a forceful on-air monologue (see attached clip).

But Sanchez was reportedly more revealing yesterday when speaking to fellow Twitter fans at a conference on the microblogging service, disclosing he'd written an email memo to superiors, prodding them to significantly expand their Iran coverage. Wrote one conference participant:

After his comments on the panel, Sanchez described to me and others how his email about #CNNFail on Twitter went up to the highest levels of the network. And, after the network's business, PR and marketing staff was pulled in, coverage the next day shifted...During the panel, Sanchez that "at no time did CNN drop the ball" - based upon his remarks following, however, I have to wonder whether there was an appreciation in the C-suite at CNN that the online backlash on Twitter was a hint that Amanpour reporting live from Tehran wasn't capturing the whole scene, and that US citizens were hungry for more information about what was happening on the streets and rooftaps of Iran.

The double-talk has already been noted on — where else — Twitter. Wrote NYU professor Jay Rosen, "Rick Sanchez told a different story to CNN viewers than he shared with participants" at the Twitter-fest. Sanchez's bragging about his clout at CNN would seem less duplicitous if only he'd posted it to Twitter himself; he'd hardly be the first journalist to use the service for naked self-promotion.