Jim McCarthy is a 57-year-old public-relations boss known for being unusually combative with the press. As the head of the boutique firm CounterPoint Strategies, which has offices in New York and Washington, D.C., he is a spokesperson for big seafood (he helped “the shrimp industry to go hard at the AP just a few weeks ago”) and big vape (“my poor little vaping guys,” as he describes the industry to me, referring to its alleged persecution by the FDA). He speaks in a mannered drawl in keeping with his role as the flack who represented Augusta National Golf Club in...