{"id":758167,"date":"2026-06-24T13:58:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T13:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/758167\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T13:58:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T13:58:26","slug":"david-hearn-golfer-facing-online-hatred-after-photo-mishap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/758167\/","title":{"rendered":"David Hearn: Golfer facing online hatred after photo mishap"},"content":{"rendered":"

A golfer from Brantford, Ont., is facing a slew of online hatred in a case of mistaken identity.<\/p>\n

It began when ABC News wrote an article about the arrest of three-time U.S. Olympian David Hearn. The 67-year-old canoeist from Bethesda, Maryland, was cuffed after he allegedly touched a piece of blue coating that had detached from the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

The iconic landmark has been the target of criticism and extensive repairs after a $14.7 million renovation.<\/a><\/p>\n

In a social media post, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed there was a \u201c350-foot gash\u201d in the paint. He has, without evidence, repeatedly blamed vandals for the site\u2019s ongoing challenges.<\/p>\n

Trump said six people, including Hearn, were arrested for the damage.<\/p>\n

But when ABC News covered the story, they mistakenly used a photo of Brampton-born Canadian PGA golfer David Hearn, who now lives in Brantford. A post on X, with the wrong picture, was published on Sunday night and has since garnered more than 256,400 views. The post was still viewable on the @ABC account as of Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\"\"David Hearn mistaken identity X An ABC News post on X mistakenly used a photo of Canadian golfer David Hearn instead of American canoeist David Hear. (Courtesy: @ABC on X) <\/p>\n

A correction was made to the article, but the Canadian golfer, who goes by @HearnDavid on X<\/a>, has been fielding a steady stream of accusations ever since.<\/p>\n

\u201c@HearnDavid you are going to jail you worthless piece of liberal (expletive),\u201d an X user, identified as \u201cTravelling Johnny The Patriot,\u201d wrote.<\/p>\n

Hearn responded with, \u201cPlease direct your anger to a better place\u2026 or even the correct David Hearn. There happens to be more than one person in the world with the same name.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"David Hearn mistaken identity X Canadian David Hearn (@HearnDavid) responds to a X user mistakenly accusing him of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy: @HearnDavid on X) <\/p>\n

Brantford\u2019s David Hearn also has a foundation, called The David Hearn Foundation<\/a>, which has raised more than $1.2 million for the Alzheimer\u2019s Society of Brant, Haldimand Norfolk, Hamilton Halton chapter. Angry social media users zeroed in on that aspect of his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey David, spend more time on the foundation and less time vandalizing reflection pools. You are the epitome of,\u201d an X user named Vic Mackey wrote. Mackey did not specify what Hearn is \u201cthe epitome of.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"David Hearn mistaken identity X An X user mistakenly accused Canadian golfer David Hearn of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy: @HearnDavid on X) <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the American canoeist has denied all allegations he intentionally damaged the reflection pool.<\/p>\n

CTV News Kitchener has reached out to Brantford\u2019s David Hearn for his take on the naming mishap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A golfer from Brantford, Ont., is facing a slew of online hatred in a case of mistaken identity.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[712,49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-758167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}