True Pundit

Last updated
True Pundit
Type of business Limited liability company
Type of site
 fake news website
Available inEnglish
Founded2016
Key peopleMichael D. Moore
Advertising Yes
CommercialYes
Current statusInactive

True Pundit is a far-right [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] fake news website known for publishing conspiracy theories. [1] [2] [4] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] According to The Atlantic, True Pundit had "a well-known modus operandi, perfected during the 2016 U.S. election: running baseless stories and then asking leading questions". [14]

Contents

True Pundit was "fluent in the paranoid language of 2016 social media" and often credited false stories about the FBI and Hillary Clinton to anonymous sources and claimed the mainstream media was covering it up. The website helped spread thePlandemic conspiracy theory. It was often promoted by partisan and conspiracy websites and prominent pro-Trump figures, including Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. [1] [10] [11] [15] [16]

True Pundit earned revenue by selling merchandise and advertising with Revcontent, a service that monetized fake news sites, and briefly worked with the ad firm Intermarkets. [1] [17]

Notable conspiracy theories

In October 2016 True Pundit was the source of the claim that Hillary Clinton asked, "Can’t we just drone this guy?" about Julian Assange. The conspiracy theory was amplified by WikiLeaks, InfoWars, RT, Heat Street and Fox News. WikiLeaks sent a private message to Donald Trump Jr. asking him to "comment on/push" the story. Trump Jr. replied that he "already did that". [1] [15] [18] [19]

The website also published stories about Hillary Clinton possibly wearing an earpiece at a debate, using hand signals with debate moderators, and being drunk before a campaign rally. [1] [11] [20]

In 2016 and 2017 True Pundit promoted theories that mass shootings in Las Vegas and at the Orlando Pulse nightclub involved FBI cover-ups and a conspiracy theory related to Trump Tower wiretapping allegations. [1] Years after True Pundit said FBI sources fingered the Pulse shooter as an FBI asset, Omar Mateen's family connections to the FBI was revealed. [21]

In February 2018 True Pundit promoted conspiracy theories about the Parkland high school shooting. [22] [23] [24] In August 2018 True Pundit was the first to imply a link between a Pizzagate conspiracy theorist's death and the Clinton family. [10]

In 2020, True Pundit played a key role in boosting the Plandemic conspiracy theory. [16]

History

The website for True Pundit was registered in March 2016 and launched that June. True Pundit was created by Michael D. Moore using the pseudonym Thomas Paine and managed by True Pundit Media LLC. [1] [11]

In 2017 Moore sarcastically said True Pundit was "flattered to be accused of participating in disinformation campaigns" for Russia and implied that mainstream media do the same for other governments. [25] “We are flattered to be accused of participating in disinformation campaigns for government because as a start-up that's the exact time-tested model we have been emulating from the New York Times, Washington Post and other mainstream media outlets," Paine said. [26] The allegations were later proven false when reporters admitted the claims were fabricated. Left-wing critics of True Pundit, including the Washington Post, were forced to print [27] numerous retractions. Business Insider admitted targets like True Pundit were manufactured and the original allegations were false. [28]

Thomas Paine pseudonym

Michael D. Moore had a background in journalism, previously a contractor with FBI, when he created True Pundit in 2016 using the pseudonym, Thomas Paine. Moore's autobiography as Thomas Paine says he won the Gerald Loeb Award, and claimed he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting twice and a George Polk Political Reporting award once.

In 1996, Moore won the coveted Gerald Loeb Award for its series "Formula for Disaster: The Lodi Explosion" by Michael Moore, Bruce Locklin and Debra Lynn Vial. The series was the catalyst for the creation of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.

In 1996 Moore was co-winner of a Gerald Loeb Award for reporting about TWA Flight 800. Moore said that in the late 1990s he left journalism to work in "intelligence" and started the company "Dig Dirt" with the tagline "investigative intelligence". When Moore's newspaper learned about Dig Dirt, they opened an internal investigation. The paper's editor said it "very clearly created the appearance and potential for a conflict of interest" but Moore was cleared of wrongdoing, but resigned from the newspaper. [1] [29] [30]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dinesh D'Souza</span> Indian-American political commentator (born 1961)

Dinesh Joseph D'Souza is an American right-wing political commentator, conspiracy theorist, author and filmmaker. He has made several financially successful films, and written over a dozen books, several of them New York Times best-sellers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">QAnon</span> American conspiracy theory and political movement

QAnon is a far-right American political conspiracy theory and political movement that originated in 2017. QAnon centers on fabricated claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as "Q". Those claims have been relayed and developed by online communities and influencers. Their core belief is that a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic child molesters is operating a global child sex trafficking ring that conspired against President Donald Trump. QAnon has direct roots in Pizzagate, an Internet conspiracy theory that appeared one year earlier, but also incorporates elements of many different conspiracy theories and unifies them into a larger interconnected conspiracy theory. QAnon has been described as a cult.

<i>InfoWars</i> American far-right conspiracy theory and fake news website

InfoWars is an American far-right conspiracy theory and fake news website created by Alex Jones. It was founded in 1999, and operated under Free Speech Systems LLC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clinton body count conspiracy theory</span> Conspiracy theory

The Clinton body count is a conspiracy theory centered around the belief that former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his wife, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have secretly had their political opponents murdered, often made to look like suicides, totaling as many as 50 or more listed victims. The Congressional Record (1994) stated that the compiler of the original list, Linda Thompson, admitted she had 'no direct evidence' of Clinton killing anyone. Indeed, she says the deaths were probably caused by 'people trying to control the president' but refuses to say who they were."

One America News Network (OANN), also known as One America News (OAN), is a far-right, pro-Trump cable channel founded by Robert Herring Sr. and owned by Herring Networks, Inc., that launched on July 4, 2013. The network is headquartered in San Diego, California, and operates news bureaus in Washington, D.C., and New York City.

The murder of Seth Rich occurred on July 10, 2016, at 4:20 a.m. in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Rich died about an hour and a half after being shot twice in the back. The perpetrators were never apprehended; police suspected he had been the victim of an attempted robbery.

In March 2016, the personal Gmail account of John Podesta, a former White House chief of staff and chair of Hillary Clinton's 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, was compromised in a data breach accomplished via a spear-phishing attack, and some of his emails, many of which were work-related, were hacked. Cybersecurity researchers as well as the United States government attributed responsibility for the breach to the Russian cyber spying group Fancy Bear, allegedly two units of a Russian military intelligence agency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pizzagate conspiracy theory</span> Debunked conspiracy theory about alleged child-sex ring

"Pizzagate" is a conspiracy theory that went viral during the 2016 United States presidential election cycle, falsely claiming that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) had discovered a pedophilia ring linked to members of the Democratic Party while searching through Anthony Weiner's emails. It has been extensively discredited by a wide range of organizations, including the Washington, D.C. police.

Fake news websites target United States audiences by using disinformation to create or inflame controversial topics such as the 2016 election. Most fake news websites target readers by impersonating or pretending to be real news organizations, which can lead to legitimate news organizations further spreading their message. Most notable in the media are the many websites that made completely false claims about political candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, as part of a larger campaign to gain viewers and ad revenue or spread disinformation. Additionally, satire websites have received criticism for not properly notifying readers that they are publishing false or satirical content, since many readers have been duped by seemingly legitimate articles.

The Gateway Pundit (TGP) is an American far-right fake news website. The website is known for publishing falsehoods, hoaxes, and conspiracy theories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Posobiec</span> American conservative commentator and conspiracy theorist

Jack Michael Posobiec III is an American alt-right political activist, television correspondent and presenter, conspiracy theorist, and former United States Navy intelligence officer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uranium One controversy</span> Alleged US political scandal

The Uranium One controversy involves various conspiracy theories promoted by conservative media, politicians, and commentators that characterized the sale of the uranium mining company Uranium One to the Russian state-owned corporation Rosatom as a $145 million bribery scandal involving Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation. No evidence of wrongdoing was ever found.

The People's Voice is an American fake news website based in Los Angeles. The site was founded as Your News Wire in 2014 by Sean Adl-Tabatabai and his husband, Sinclair Treadway. In November 2018, it rebranded itself as NewsPunch. Your News Wire was revived as a separate website in November 2020, and has continued publishing hoaxes similar to those in NewsPunch. In 2023, NewsPunch adopted its current name, The People's Voice.

The Russia investigation origins counter-narrative, or Russia counter-narrative, is a narrative embraced by Donald Trump, Republican Party leaders, and right-wing conservatives attacking the legitimacy and conclusions of investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 elections, and the links between Russian intelligence and Trump associates. The counter-narrative includes conspiracy theories such as Spygate, accusations of a secretive, elite "deep state" network, and other false and debunked claims. Trump in particular has attacked not only the origins but the conclusions of the investigation, and ordered a review of the Mueller report, which was conducted by attorney general William Barr – alleging there was a "deep state plot" to undermine him. He has claimed the investigations were an "illegal hoax", and that the "real collusion" was between Hillary Clinton, Democrats, and Russia – and later, Ukraine.

This is a timeline of events related to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.

Cassandra MacDonald is an American journalist and activist. As a journalist, she has worked for the Russian state-owned international news agency Sputnik (2015–2017), far-right American conspiracy theory websites Big League Politics (2017) and The Gateway Pundit, as well as Timcast.

Elizabeth M. Crokin is an American columnist and conspiracy theorist. Since 2017, she has been an outspoken supporter of QAnon conspiracy theories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Seaman (writer)</span> Commentator and conspiracy theorist

David Seaman is a conspiracist primarily known for his promotion of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory both during its initial furor and in subsequent years. Seaman wrote for various publications while styling himself as a 'publicity expert.' By 2012, Seaman had shifted to a political orientation, launching a Libertarian senate campaign and expressing his views on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. In 2016, Seaman was fired from his Huffpost columnist role for promoting conspiracist content, after which he became a major voice in the Pizzagate conspiracy community.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Silverman, Craig (2018-08-27). "Revealed: Notorious Pro-Trump Misinformation Site True Pundit Is Run By An Ex-Journalist With A Grudge Against The FBI". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  2. 1 2 Gibian, Rebecca. "Pro-Trump Blogger Revealed To Be Ex-Journalist Who Hates FBI". InsideHook. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  3. ↑ Smith, Allan. "The far right thinks there's a massive FBI-linked conspiracy around survivors of the Florida school shooting". Business Insider. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  4. 1 2 Rothschild, Mike (2018-12-10). "What life is like inside the right-wing Twitter bubble". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  5. ↑ Farhi, Paul (2018-02-23). "What is Gateway Pundit, the conspiracy-hawking site at the center of the bogus Florida 'crisis actors' hype?". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  6. ↑ Garcia, Arturo (2018-02-20). "Far Right Blogs, Conspiracy Theorists Attack Parkland Mass Shooting Survivor". Snopes. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  7. ↑ Emery, David (2018-08-11). "Was the Father of the Man Accused of Training School Shooters the Keynote Speaker at Obama's Democratic National Convention?". Snopes. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  8. ↑ Wilson, Jason (2018-02-21). "Crisis actors, deep state, false flag: the rise of conspiracy theory code words". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  9. ↑ Borchers, Callum (2021-11-25). "Hillary Clinton earpiece speculation conjures the ghost of George W. Bush's back bulge". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  10. 1 2 3 Sommer, Will (2018-08-23). "Conspiracy Theorists Try to Turn Pizzagate Pusher Into New Seth Rich". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Silverman, Craig (2016-12-05). "How The Bizarre Conspiracy Theory Behind "Pizzagate" Was Spread". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  12. ↑ "True Pundit". Media Matters for America. 2017-10-23. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  13. ↑ Palma, Bethania (2019-07-30). "Was the Death of FBI Agent Sal Cincinelli Linked to the Clinton Foundation?". Snopes. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  14. ↑ Lewis, Helen (2020-06-12). "The Mainstream Media Won't Tell You This". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2023-11-08.
  15. 1 2 Singal, Jesse (2016-10-03). "Explaining the Rumor That Hillary Clinton Wanted to Drone-Strike Julian Assange". Intelligencer. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  16. 1 2 Breland, Ali. "After a conspiracy site boosted the debunked "Plandemic" video, Trump pushed its take on Joe Scarborough". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2023-11-08.
  17. ↑ Vo, Craig Silverman, Jeremy Singer-Vine, Lam Thuy (2017-04-04). "Fake News, Real Ads: Fake News Publishers Are Still Earning Money From Big Ad Networks". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2023-10-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ↑ LaCapria, Kim (2016-10-03). "To Silence Wikileaks, Hillary Clinton Proposed Drone Strike on Julian Assange?". Snopes. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  19. ↑ Ioffe, Julia (2017-11-13). "The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  20. ↑ Kaplan, Alex (2018-06-25). "Return of Pizzagate: Pro-Trump media use FBI IG report to revive conspiracy theory". Salon. Retrieved 2023-11-08.
  21. ↑ "Father of Pulse gunman was FBI informant, widow's attorneys say - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. 2018-03-26. Retrieved 2024-10-10.
  22. ↑ Smith, Allan. "Some of Trump's most fervent supporters have started to criticize a school-shooting survivor who has made a flurry of media appearances". Business Insider. Retrieved 2023-11-08.
  23. ↑ Smith, Allan. "The far right thinks there's a massive FBI-linked conspiracy around survivors of the Florida school shooting". Business Insider. Retrieved 2023-11-08.
  24. ↑ Smith, Allan. "The conspiracy theory around one of the Florida school-shooting survivors is getting even more insane". Business Insider. Retrieved 2023-11-08.
  25. ↑ Dorell, Oren. "Breitbart, other 'alt-right' websites are the darlings of Russian propaganda effort". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  26. ↑ Dorell, Oren. "Breitbart, other 'alt-right' websites are the darlings of Russian propaganda effort". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2024-10-10.
  27. ↑ "The Post issues minor corrections in coverage of Hamilton 68". Washington Post. 2023-05-18. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2024-10-10.
  28. ↑ Mark, Sonam Sheth, Michelle. "Here's what we know about Hamilton 68, the Russian online influence tracker called into question by the 'Twitter Files'". Business Insider. Retrieved 2024-10-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  29. ↑ "Asbury Park Press Clipping On TWA Crash Story". www.documentcloud.org.
  30. ↑ ""On the Record: Top Reporter at N.J. Daily Resign" by Giobbe, Dorothy - Editor & Publisher, Vol. 129, Issue 50, December 14, 1996 | Online Research Library: Questia". 2018-09-15. Archived from the original on 2018-09-15. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.