Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that HBO has ordered staffers to create fake accounts to fire back at those who criticize their shows online.
Nick Bilton was one of the prominent journalists regularly singing the praises of social media in publications like Wired for over a decade. But like many others, his tech utopianism has since fallen to Earth, as the downsides of online platforms have revealed themselves.
Now Bilton has written, directed, and produced Fake Famous, a documentary in which he and his crew audition three potential Instagram influencers to propel to fame. They lure them with a simple question: “Do you want to be famous?” They received roughly 4,000 submissions.
Bloys was serious. “Who can go on a mission,” he asked McCaffrey, according to the messages, adding 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.”
In June 2020, HBO’s then-president of original programming Casey Bloys needed someone to “go on a mission.”
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. The remake of the original 1960s show carves out an origin story for Mason, showing flashes of him serving in World War I, which VanArendonk felt was weak storytelling. Days before the series aired on the platform (VanArendonk seemingly had a screener for review) she subtweeted the series. “Dear prestige TV,” she wrote, “Please find some way to communicate male trauma besides showing me a flashback to the hero’s memories of trench warfare.”
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!”
