WTTG entertainment reporter Kevin McCarthy has been getting mean social media posts from people who think he’s former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
WTTG’s McCarthy said he’s been getting nasty messages on X, formerly known as Twitter, as far back as 2017. He says they tend to get nastier and even more disturbing when the politician is in the news.
When Speaker McCarthy was voted out of the job, someone called WTTG McCarthy a “POS traitor” on social media.
The Washington, D.C. Fox owned station posted the text of two of the messages.”@KevinMcCarthyTV is a POS traitor,” said one tweet. “Ignore all he says, because none of it is in US citizen’s best interest.”
“The is only ONE person to blame for the shutdown. #KevinMcCarthy. @kevinomccarthy @KevinMcCarthyTV He’s waited 10 hours before shutdown to vote. #Democrats wanted 90-mins to read it, normally 72 hours. Kevin said #no,” read another.
McCarthy said he redirects the flames by sending a sarcastic response involving a movie-related tidbit in return.
“Wait, is this because I saw Oppenheimer 8 times in theaters? Listen, when Christopher Nolan releases a new film, it feels like an event that I want to experience over and over again,” he responded to one. “Saw it in 70mm, 70mm IMAX, 1.90 digital IMAX and 1.43 digital IMAX. I was busy, sorry.”
The station said the the writer often apologies for their mistake. Sometimes though, the tweets get deleted.
“I do it for two reasons. One, because I want to call them out. I think people hide behind their keyboards and say things to people they would never say to somebody’s face and I think it’s just interesting to call them out and put them on display and say ‘look what you’re doing,'” WTTG McCarthy said in 2017. “And…I also like being condescending and sending them a movie review back.”