Prntly

Last updated

Prntly.com
Type of site
Politics
Fake news
Available inEnglish
OwnerPrntly LLC
Created byAlexander Portelli
URL www.prntly.com
CommercialYes
Launched2015;8 years ago (2015)
Current statusactive

Prntly: America's Top News Site (known simply as Prntly) is an American fake news website that supports Trump and right-leaning causes. [1] The site gained attention in 2015 when then candidate Donald Trump tweeted links to the site. Prntly was listed as being based in New Hampshire but no business registration could be found in 2016. [1]

Contents

Creator

Prntly was founded in 2015 by Alexander M Portelli. Portelli dropped out of high school at age 14, and served time after being arrested at age 19 selling ecstasy. Portelli attempted a mayoral candidacy in Albany, New York, first as a libertarian, then as an independent after the local Libertarian Party disavowed him. Portelli was the only one of six candidates invited to a WAMC discussion. It wasn't clear if he could run for office in New York based on his criminal status, and he dropped out, endorsing his mother as a write-in candidate for the Green party. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

Portelli owned a overnight diner, "Portelli's Joe n’ Dough Cafe", opened January 2013 and closed 16 months later. He also owned some ATMs under the trademark AMP Calypso. [8] [1] [9] [10] Portelli also created a left-leaning site, MarshallReport.com, which was less successful than Prntly. [1] [3] [11] After moving to New Hampshire, Portelli created a sites called Porcuprint and Portelli ATM. [9] Portelli launched a Wefunder crowdfunding campaign for Prntpage in 2019 and discussed commercial property in Colorado, managing renters and short-term (AirBnB) properties in Las Vegas in 2020. He also stated he was importing coronavirus antibody tests and masks, stating he has 100,000 masks on hand and 250,000 on their way, selling on eBay, Facebook, and OfferUp, then to restaurants, medical suppliers, and hospitals "across the country". He said US Customs was seizing half of an order of 40,000 masks in March, so he drove to Los Angeles to get them. He said he was also manufacturing masks in Costa Rica. [12] [9] [13] [14]

Portelli lives in Aurora, Colorado.

Website

Portelli created the site with web developer Josh Barton. The website saw massive growth in readership in the first year of operation, jumping from an anonymous print site with a blog to being one of the top 2000 sites in the United States, with an average monthly visitor rate of a million people during the 2016 election cycle. [15] The Washington Post reported that then-candidate Donald Trump read the website, and tweeted links to the site. The Post also noted some of its articles were plagiarized. [1]

Between 2017 and 2020, the site went defunct due to social media sites cracking down on fact checking. [13]

With the 2020 election coming up and the George Floyd Protests, Prntly started up again, claiming Bikers for Trump was planning to invade the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. The story was picked up by Big League Politics ("pledging to retake Seattle's Capital[sic] Hill Autonomous Zone") and Gateway Pundit ("Initial Reports: Bikers for Trump and Other Groups Planning to Retake Seattle Occupation Zone on July 4th"). Mediaite factchecked with Bikers for Trump, who indicated neither outlet had contacted them. Portelli posted on Facebook that he recruited "12,000 patriots" for the event. [16] [13]

In 2015, Snopes regarded the site as a "a disreputable outlet that has a penchant for publishing both fake news and spurious pro-Trump articles." [17] Snopes also documented a case of the site recycling a story from fellow fake/hoax news site Now8News and changing the details. [18]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bump, Philip (April 2, 2016). "The pro-Trump fake news website that's finding an audience — with Trump's help". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 17, 2018.
  2. ↑ Jordan Carleo-Evangelist. "Subtract one Portelli, add another, chill, serve with a grain of salt". Local Politics. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  3. 1 2 "Albany's newest mayoral candidate is 23, has record to run on". Local Politics. March 15, 2013. Retrieved June 17, 2020. Portelli, an Albany native and the owner of Portelli's Joe N' Dough on Central Avenue, said he began his campaign in earnest in September when he was paroled after serving about 18 months in state prison on a drug conviction.
  4. ↑ Jordan Carleo-Evangelist (September 1, 2013). "Inside Politics: Mom to offer a 'more mature' view". Times Union. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  5. ↑ Jordan Carleo-Evangelist (August 19, 2013). "Add a Libertarian to mayor's race". Times Union. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  6. ↑ Jordan Carleo-Evangelist (August 25, 2013). "Parole query may go unanswered". Times Union. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  7. ↑ Jordan Carleo-Evangelist (July 2, 2013). "Backyard chicken issue rules roost". Times Union. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  8. 1 2 Steve Barnes (April 23, 2014). "The late show". Times Union. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  9. 1 2 3 Steve Barnes (January 17, 2015). "Portelli's Joe N Dough returning in Albany". Table Hopping. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  10. ↑ Steve Barnes (January 30, 2013). "Bite-Sized: Morsels of food news". Times Union. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  11. ↑ Scott Waldman (August 29, 2013). "Mayoral race: Son out, mom in". Times Union. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  12. ↑ "Prntpage: We're streamlining all the major apps into one simple, more affordable website". Prntpage on Wefunder. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  13. 1 2 3 Philip Bump. "Analysis | A fake-news purveyor apparently invented a Seattle counterprotest — that could become real". Washington Post. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
  14. ↑ Eric Schleien (April 23, 2020). "Coronavirus Investing Series, Part 11 | Alex Portelli | The Economics of Facemasks & COVID-19 Tests - Eric Schleien". The Intelligent Investing Podcast. Retrieved June 17, 2020. Alex started his privately held AirBnB business 4 years ago and went from owning 0 to 8 properties since then. His web company is prntly.com and he is currently launching another company called prntpage.com which is currently in beta-testing.
  15. ↑ "Prntly.com Traffic Statistics". Alexa. Archived from the original on May 18, 2018. Retrieved May 17, 2018.
  16. ↑ Zachary Petrizzo (June 15, 2020). "'Bikers For Trump' Say They Are Not Going To Seattle's CHAZ". Mediaite. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
  17. ↑ Evon, Dan. "Tim Kaine Admits to Open Marriage on Twitter". Snopes. Snopes. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
  18. ↑ "FALSE: Woman Arrested for Masturbating with Jimmy Dean Sausage in Walmart Bathroom". Snopes.com. Retrieved June 17, 2020. A day after the Now8News article was published, the disreputable Prntly web site regurgitated the story using the same premise and photograph but changing several details, stating that the incident occurred in New York not Louisiana, that the phallic food was a Johnsonville Brand Sausage and not a Jimmy Dean sausage, and that the store involved was a Price Chopper and not a WalMart. Why the discrepancy? It might have something to do with the fact that both stories were completely made up.
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