This just in-
a new bombshell report from Rolling Stone on the heels of a new lawsuit lobbed at HBO alleges that CEO Casey Bloys (who all on his own is a piece of work) ordered various staffers to create fake accounts across social media with the EXPRESS purpose of trolling critics.
According to the report, Sully Temori, an HBO executive assistant, is now suing HBO for the practice. Senior Vice President of Drama Programming at HBO Kathleen McCaffrey is also named.
One of the examples given is a personal vendetta against Rolling Stone chief tv critic, Alan Sepinwall. Sepinwall did not care for Joss Whedon‘s fantasy series “The Nevers,” and Bloys was apparently very upset about this.
“Casey is looking for a tweeter… he’s mad at Alan Sepinwall,” a text from McCaffrey to Temori reads. “Can our secret operative please tweet at Alan’s review: ‘Alan is always predictably safe and scared in his opinions.’ And then we have to delete this chain right? Omg I just got scared lol.”
Being a professional critic who watches and reviews film and tv is a thankless job all on it’s own. That paired with the insane amount of hatred thrown towards those of us who have the audacity to talk about what we liked or didn’t like about a project has turned into a daily live-fire exercise. It is not uncommon for female and minority critics to receive death threats for giving a thing a low score.
Low scores and bad reviews is apparently what led Bloys to want to go after those critics personally. But, he being a CEO and fairly high-profile person within the organization, this was decided to be a bad idea. So instead, he ordered various staffers to create fake accounts with the sole purpose of responding to said reviewers.
This story is developing…
Mary Anne Butler
Mary Anne Butler (Mab) has been part of the fast-paced world of journalism since she was 15, getting her start in album reviews and live concert coverage for a nationally published (print) music magazine. She eventually transitioned to online media, writing for such sites as UGO/IGN, ComicsOnline, Geek Magazine, Ace of Geeks, Aggressive Comix (where she is still Editor-in-Chief), Bleeding Cool (where she was News Editor), and now Nerdbot as Editor-In-Chief. Over the past 10 years, she’s built a reputation at conventions across the globe as a cosplayer (occasionally), photographer (constantly), panelist and moderator (mostly), and reporter (always). Interviews, reviews, observations, breaking news, and objective reporting are the name of the game for the founder of Harkonnen Knife Fight, a Dune-themed band with an international presence. Though she be but little, she is fierce.
Related Posts
