In President Trump‘s political roadshow, there are no brownie points for sucking up – unless it’s to Trump. And so it goes with the ABC reporter who snitched on so-called looters in Tropical Storm Harvey, who is getting his ass handed to him for alerting the authorities to possible petty thievery.
It all began when Tom Llamas, an anchor and chief national correspondent for ABC News and World News Tonight Weekend, informed the police that people with covered faces were going into a supermarket.
Llamas got reamed out for what he had to consider to be an act worthy of a boy scout. An onslaught of observers, however, were galled that the Coast Guard and police were spending valuable time dealing with looters when people’s lives are at stake.
“Let me clear this up,” Llamas explained on Twitter. “We were w/police who had discovered a dead body & mentioned we saw ppl w/faces covered going into a supermarket nearby.”
But his original tweet did not involve a dead body. It explained that because of his eagle-eyed vigilence, police were on the way.
Mark Harris, a journalist for Vulture, questioned his judgment.
“What did you imagine the hungry people were taking from the grocery store? Big-screen TVs?” he asked sarcastically.
Jesse Farrar got straight to the point.
“Too late bitch,” he wrote. He added, “I love piling on. I’m fat as fuck and I’m jumpin on here.”
Tom McKay, a night editor for Gizmodo, cracked on Llamas, saying, “Tweet through it Tom. keep tweeting.
And of course there were GIFS.
There’s Marsha Brady saying, “Sure, Jan.”
There’s a dog digging a hole at the beach.
“Stop digging,” wrote Parker Malloy, a writer at Upworthy.
Lots of non-journalist observers shredded Llamas.
“And now you know why they covered their faces, so some jackass wouldn’t report them for getting food supplies.”
Some lady who calls herself Laura Krabapple was especially vexed.
She sounded like something that might have been useful if Llamas had an editor to stop him from trying to become a hero to the masses. Something sounding like, hmmm…. an editor?
“Here you are, still dog-whistling. You’re saying every person at the supermarket had their face covered? Follow-ups: How close were you? How many people did you see? How many with faces covered? Did you speak to any of them? Did you ask people why their faces were covered? Did you ask why they were there, what they were looking for? Did you contact the owner/manager/franchise? Do you know if their stock is insured? You said coast guard was overhead, how many helicopters does the coast guard have available? As you’ve become a part of this event, have you remained at the scene to observe any police/coast guard response? Is the helicopter still hovering? Are police or coast guard being dispatched? If so, what actions have they taken? If you’re away from the scene, are you planning a follow-up with coast guard or police? If you do follow-up, what effect may that have?”
Data security expert Jon Hendren called him out: “Sniiiiitch.”
Loads of people called Llamas out for being a snitch, a narc, a coward and worse.
“Yeah no your original tweet implied you narced on people who were getting stuff from a grocery store and the body was an afterthought,” wrote Justin Arnold, a State Department reporter.
“Good job man,” wrote Jordan Uhi, editor of The Opposition. “Obviously people finding food was more important than someone who literally died.”
“Suck my dick.”
“While you’re at it can you let the police know that some of the people wading through the streets were jaywalking?”
Comedian Brian Gaar quipped, “I swiped some Starburst from the grocery store when I was 6, you can forward this tweet to the FBI.”
And this: “Not to worry, Tom. It’s clear enough: you’re a fucking snitch and a piece of shit.”
If the general public could tar and feather him, they likely would.
For now, Twitter shaming Llamas will have to suffice.
