Sky News presenter Kay Burley told The Ray D'Arcy Show on RTÉ One on Saturday night that she delights in doing battle with trolls on social media and shared her strategy for dealing with them.
The veteran broadcaster was asked by a bemused D'Arcy why she bothers to take the time to reply to trolls.
"I love it!" Burley exclaimed. "I absolutely [love it]. Because it's men in their late 50s, in their mum's basement, waiting to be called up for their tea, drinking White Stripe with their balcony bellies and being, you know, keyboard faceless warriors. I love it! I love it!"
"What sort of things do you say to them?" inquired the host.
Thank you so much for allowing me to be part of your wonderful show. Warm, enveloping audience and sublime interviewer. Happy girl ☺️
— Kay Burley (@KayBurley) February 17, 2019
"It depends," replied Burley. "Sometimes if they are massively, massively abusive I might say, 'Is that you dad?'
"I try to be funny and quirky with them. Somebody was being very abusive to me the other day, on Thursday, and I said, 'Oh, you just want me to be your Valentine, don't you?'
"I just think if you take the steam out of it, quite often they delete their tweets afterwards."
