discussion HBO CEO exposed for using fake Twitter to attack critics, apologizes

[mystery]

ROLLING STONE: HBO Bosses Used ‘Secret’ Fake Accounts to Troll TV Critics

Bloys — who was named HBO’s CEO and chairman in October 2022 — was irked by a tweet from Vulture TV critic Kathryn VanArendonk, who had some thoughts about Perry Mason, HBO’s series starring Matthew Rhys as a private detective turned defense attorney in 1930s Los Angeles. 

Bloys was annoyed, according to text messages reviewed by Rolling Stone, and sent VanArendonk’s tweet to Kathleen McCaffrey, HBO’s senior vice president of drama programming. “Maybe a Twitter user should tweet that that’s a pretty blithe response to what soldiers legitimately go through on [the] battlefield,” he texted. “Do you have a secret handle? Couldn’t we say especially given that it’s D-Day to dismiss a soldier’s experience like that seems pretty disrespectful … this must be answered!” 

Bloys was serious. “Who can go on a mission,” he asked McCaffrey, according to the messages, adding that they needed to find a “mole” at “arms length” from the HBO executive team. “We just need a random to make the point and make her feel bad.” 

Eventually, Bloys landed on a rebuttal to VanArendonk, according to the messages: “A somewhat elitist take. Is there anything more traumatic for men (and now women) than fighting in a war. Sorry if that seems too convenient for you.” 

The exchange was one of at least six instances between June 2020 and April 2021 in which Bloys and McCaffrey discussed using what they called a “secret army” to fire back at several TV critics on Twitter (now known as X) as well as anonymous commenters on articles about HBO programming, according to text exchanges reviewed by Rolling Stone. In this case, the two decided not to hit back at VanArendonk online. But in numerous instances, the HBO execs did just that, trolling the television critics with snarky responses from a fake Twitter account — and dropping pro-HBO comments on trade publication stories. 

VARIETY: HBO Boss Casey Bloys Apologizes for Using Fake Twitter Accounts to Troll TV Critics: ‘Dumb Idea’

HBO and Max CEO and chairman Casey Bloys apologized to TV critics Thursday for using fake Twitter accounts to respond to negative reviews of HBO series, following a Wednesday report that revealed Bloys’ past behavior.

“For those of you who know me, you know that I am a programming executive very, very passionate about the shows that we decide to do. And the people who do them and the people who work on them,” Bloys said Thursday morning at the start of a presentation at HBO’s New York headquarters, an event to promote HBO and Max’s upcoming slate of programming, which has been planned since Oct. 16. “I want the shows to be great. I want people to love them. I want you all to love them. It’s very important to me what you all think of the shows. When you think about that, and then think of 2020 and 2021, I’m working from home and doing an unhealthy amount of scrolling through Twitter. And I come up with a very, very dumb idea to vent my frustration.”

Bloys continued: “Obviously, six tweets over a year and a half is not very effective. But I do apologize to the people who were mentioned in the leaked emails, texts. Obviously, nobody wants to be part of a story that they have nothing to do with. But also, as many of you know, I have progressed over the past couple of years to using DMs. So now, when I take issue with something in a review, or take issue with something I see, many of you are gracious enough to engage with me in a back and forth and I think that is a probably a much healthier way to go about this. But we’ll talk more about that, and you guys can ask me anything you want in the Q&A. I just wanted to put that out there.”

Though not included in the lawsuit itself, Rolling Stone referenced alleged 2020 and 2021 text messages between Bloys and SVP of drama programming Kathleen McCaffrey. In the alleged text exchanges, Bloys and McCaffrey repeatedly discussed replying to critics who spoke negatively about HBO series, including “Perry Mason” and “Mare of Easttown,” by using fake Twitter accounts. Rolling Stone says these text messages, provided by Temori, were reviewed and verified via their metadata.

Also mentioned in Temori’s lawsuit are McCaffrey, HBO head of drama Francesca Orsi, Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye and two producers on his now-canceled HBO drama “The Idol.” Temori alleges that he was mistreated on the set of that series once he became a scripted coordinator on the project in 2021, a position he was moved to from his executive assistant role.

 

Edited November 2, 2023 by mystery

[LVP]

Is he 13 years old?

[Antikythera]

U would think with the paycheck they get they would be doing more interesting stuff with their time

[kandicha]

Imagine having all the money he has and still being so upset at some Tweets.

[WitnessOblivia]

Well..that's embarrassing. 

[Park Jinyoung]

Let’s see their reddit account

[panochita]

Was this after everyone hated the ending of that dragon show? 

[Namie-Knowles]

4 minutes ago, panochita said:

Was this after everyone hated the ending of that dragon show? 

Game of Thrones ended four years ago.

[The Man Who]

47 minutes ago, panochita said:

Was this after everyone hated the ending of that dragon show? 

It says the name of the show in the second line... 

[Axolotl]

Clown behavior 

[barbiegrande]

Disney and their payola checks bouncing, HBO using dupe accounts on Twitter. 
 

 

[fridayteenage]

The weeknd did that for no extra payment

[DeadInside]

2 hours ago, Antikythera said:

U would think with the paycheck they get they would be doing more interesting stuff with their time

Right . You live in ******* mansion and can do anything you want, and you spend it attacking people on Twitter with an alt account . 

 

Loser behavior. 

[jadeabove]

The Weeknd must have been pretty busy earlier this year, then.

[Miles.]

This is embarrassing behavior but I wouldn't call it trolling.  The Tweet in the OP is mild and he's not insulting or hurting anybody.  This seems like a non-story.

 

But now I want to know more than ever what he had to say in May 2019 when GOT was getting lashed to the pits of hell by everyone on Earth.  If he cared about Perry Mason that much, he must've been writing essays for GOT