Sun News Network's Brian Lilley made himself the centre of attention on Wednesday night when he was involved in a prickly argument with a number of political journalists over Twitter.
The fight began when Lilley tweeted about the CBC's recently announced cuts, which included hundreds of jobs being lost.
"CBC now wants advertising on Radio 2. Either they are a private broadcaster or state subsidized. Make up your mind," Lilley tweeted.
"How can CBC cry poor while launching their very expensive yet free to consumers online music service? Misplaced priorities," he also wrote on Twitter.
Lilley's employer, Sun News Network, has been quite vocal about its opposition to the CBC. With Lilley himself writing a column on how he and fellow Sun News host Ezra Levant are on the network's enemies list.
"It shouldn’t come as a surprise CBC has a file on me, some 547 pages as of a couple of months ago, mostly with the pages blanked out. We already knew the state broadcaster has an extensive file on my Sun News colleague Ezra Levant," Lilley wrote on his blog.
Lilley engaged with others on Twitter about the CBC cuts but the conversation got heated when Ryerson professor and Hill Times columnist Greg Elmer tweeted at Lilley.
"Even robots have more variation than @brianlilley 's CBC rants. What's happened to news? reporting? Issues?"
Lilley responded: "@greg_elmer funny Greg you only complain when I write on CBC. Watch tonight as we talk social media & the police state, unions, guns & more"
"@greg_elmer and last night we covered prostitution, Trayvon, abortion and more. So question...why are you a prick? #hack #ryehigh," he added.
Things got even more complicated when the Globe and Mail's online political editor Stephen Wicary chimed in:
"Enjoying back and forth between @brianlilley and @greg_elmer. Definitely a teachable moment in #journalism, not to mention basic manners."
Lilley's response: "@wicary speaking of manners. Hello Wicary. Out for your evening taunt of us all are you. You are not a journalist, you are an angry shill."
But Wicary wasn't the only Ottawa journalist to get into the firing line. The Ottawa Citizen's Glen McGregor tweeted about the fight and soon got drawn in.
The conversation took an ugly turn, with Lilley making references to Glen McGregor's deceased mother and his former employment as a strip club DJ and Frank magazine writer.
Lilley also found the time to take shots at the CBC's Terry Milewski and Globe and Mail columnist Tabatha Southey.
The twitter fight seems to have burned out for now. Perhaps it was because Lilley had to promote his show on Sun Media. One of the topics he talked about tonight, the dangers of social media.
See the full twitter fight below: