Wesley Lowery is acting his shoe size, not his age.
Which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has even casually followed the Washington Post reporter’s career in the past year.
This afternoon’s cat fight is with Washington Examiner media reporter Eddie Scarry (who, full disclosure, I edited while at FishbowlDC.)
Since Scarry and I obviously have a working history, I am going to try to be as objective as possible when reporting this.
So, I will not be saying that Scarry won the afternoon Twitter fight, for instance. Or that he’s far more mature than Lowery will ever be. That just wouldn’t be proper.
Washington Post editors should be aware, however, that Lowery invited the Washington Examiner reporter over to the newsroom for what could be a contentious meeting or brawl. Security may want to be called in just in case.
Who started it: Technically, Scarry.
The topic: Of course, race. But don’t suggest to Lowery that he is a race reporter or he’ll bite your head off and insist that you’re inserting errors about him into your copy.
Let the bitchfest begin. Scarry started with a question that set Lowery off like a firecracker.
Lowery linked to a story he wrote about money raised for Tamir Rice’s family. Rice was a 12-year-old boy who was fatally shot by Cleveland police because he had a toy gun and they confused it for a real one.
Scarry had a question about Lowery’s second graph.
SCARRY: “Re ‘ever-growing roster,’ have more black men been killed by police lately or is there more media attention on the matter?”
LOWERY: “Every time a black man is killed the roster is one name longer than it was previously. That’s how ‘growth’ works.”
SCARRY: “Then by your logic, every person killed is specific to their race. Good point.”
Uh oh. This is where Lowery usually goes bonkers.
LOWERY: “You’re so hell bent on driving your absurd narrative about me that you’re deliberately miscontruing what was written. go away.”
There it is.
Here’s where Scarry turns into a psychologist and assesses Lowery’s state of mind.
SCARRY: “Needlessly defensive. Intense anxiety over simple questions.”
LOWERY: “No anxiety at all. Walk across the street and we’ll calmly discuss this in person. You’re the one choosing to make public spectacle.”
Yikes. Did Lowery just ask Scarry to step outside?
SCARRY: “Well, I have asked you to meet but you stopped answering my texts.”
At this juncture of the melee, Lowery accuses Scarry of being afraid of weather. Scarry explains to The Mirror that he’s actually scared of anything that falls from the sky. “Comets, etc…”
LOWERY: “Agreed to meet, you got scared of snow. Haven’t gotten a text from you in months, not even to for comment for your various hit jobs.”
Scarry goes all Law & Order on Lowery’s ass and runs a text exchange between the pair.
LOWERY: “So last contact was Jan 25. How many pieces have you written on me since then?”
SCARRY: “I wrote two, one of which you did participate in. I don’t have to contact you when writing about a Twitter convo (2nd one).”
LOWERY: “I’m tired of your public sideshow. I’m at my desk, you have something you want to say or ask, walk across the street. I’ll wait.”
SCARRY: “You respond here just fine. Or are you suggesting that you want to hit me?”
Winner of the fight: This one’s a really, really, really tough call. Scarry posed reasonable questions and Lowery lost his mind.
Was Scarry trying to instigate something? I urged honesty. “No,” he texted me. “There’s nothing hostile or provocative about that question.” He added, “And I appreciate your call for me to be honest. You know I’m always standing by ready to lie haha.”
Because I’m trying to stay neutral here, I’ll let you decide for yourselves who won and who lost.
Will they make up? It’s tough to say. My projection is highly doubtful. But I posed the following question to each of them: “Would you break bread with him?”
Scarry: “Maybe a drink–trying to cut bread from my diet.”
Unfortunately, Lowery did not respond by Mirror press time.