On December 31, WaPo‘s racial activist Wesley Lowery went on Twitter and declared that he was done with the online social networking service. It’s over, he declared. He’s turning over a new leaf: “2015 resolution: Never Tweet,” he announced as his nose, just like Pinocchio‘s, grew and grew and grew.
Sure enough, in late January he broke down. He couldn’t stop himself from badmouthing Politico, the publication he kept berating in 2014 when he went on Twitter and blasted them for not having enough blacks in their newsroom. [RELATED: Wesley Lowery Resumes Trash Talking Politico On Twitter]
We’re barely into February and Wesley is back to his old ways — antagonistic, reactive, bratty, condescending. You name it. So much for New Year’s resolutions. In fact, screw New Year’s resolutions. Screw all resolutions for that matter.
Lowery started out relatively calm and reflective.
Yesterday marked 6 months since Michael Brown was shot and killed. So WaPo went back, to show you Ferguson today http://t.co/iJoADQu2Re
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) February 10, 2015
Washington Examiner media scribe Eddie Scarry, who I worked with at FishbowlDC, asked Lowery, “Is it WashPost standard to refer to 18-year-olds as ‘teens’?”
Wesley got mouthy. “Say the word ’18’ out loud.”
OUCH Wesley! Is that how you speak to people these days?
Scarry persisted, “So what’s the standard? AP identifies 18 as ‘man’ or ‘woman.'”
This obviously got Wesley’s knickers in a knot.
@eScarry do you think there is some confusion or ambiguity about how old Michael Brown was?
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) February 10, 2015
Scarry got snappy. And Wesley’s mood didn’t improve.
@eScarry I don’t run the WaPo copy desk, so this is clearly not a question for me, is it? Again: are you somehow confused on how old he was?
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) February 10, 2015
Scarry continued pushing Wesley (which requires about as much effort as a feather). Wesley replied with an insult for Scarry’s obviously (in his mind) really dumb question.
@eScarry not defensive. I stand by all of my work. The “is 18 a teen” is really a tired question without distinction, though
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) February 10, 2015
Scarry tried his hand at psychoanalysis. “By calling a simple question about your work ‘tired,’ you reveal yourself to be needlessly defensive,” he wrote.
Wesley seemed to simmer down, saying that he always tries to say that Brown was 18 as opposed to just “teenager” as the WaPo feature states. He explained that Brown’s exact age turns up in the video.
It took several nasty tweets, but Wesley concluded, “To more directly answer your question, I didn’t write the filler text, but did write the video script.”
Ahh….thanks for clarifying. Welcome back to Twitter, Wesley (eye roll).