Jack Posobiec

John Michael Posobiec III (/pəˈsoʊbɪk/ pə-SOH-bik; born December 14, 1985)[1] is an American correspondent for the American conservative cable news television channel, One America News Network.[2][3] He has been described by some as an internet troll[4] and conspiracy theorist[5] known primarily for his controversial and pro-Donald Trump comments on Twitter. He has promoted fake news, including the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory that high-ranking Democratic Party officials were involved in a child sex ring.[6] He has been retweeted by Donald Trump.[7]

Education and career

Posobiec was born and raised in Norristown, Pennsylvania to a family of Polish descent.[8][9] His parents were both Democrats.[4] He attended Kennedy-Kenrick Catholic High School[4] and then went to college at Temple University.[4] While at Temple he rebelled against his parents' political views, became the chairman of the Temple University College Republicans, and started a chapter of Students for Academic Freedom, an organization run by the David Horowitz Freedom Center.[4] He also did a summer internship for Sen. Rick Santorum and volunteered for Rep. Curt Weldon's unsuccessful reelection campaign in 2006.[4] He graduated with a double major in political science and broadcast journalism.[10]

After graduation Posobiec worked for the United States Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, China.[4] In 2008 he played a minor role in the film The Forbidden Kingdom.[9][4] He later worked for WPHT, a conservative talk radio station and later for the campaign of Steve Johnson in the 2010 Pennsylvania lieutenant gubernatorial election.[4]

Posobiec is a lieutenant junior grade naval intelligence officer.[7] He served several tours in the Naval Reserves from 2010 to 2017, including a deployment at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.[9] In March 2017 Posobiec resigned from his Office of Naval Intelligence position, saying that his support for Trump led to a "toxic work environment". As of August 2017 his security clearance was suspended[7] and under review.[11]

Recent political activities

Posobiec describes himself as a "Republican political operative".[12] He has called his recent work "reality journalism—part investigative, part activist, part commentary",[13][14] and has said: "I'm willing to break the fourth wall. I'm willing to walk into an anti-Trump march and start chanting anti-Clinton stuff—to make something happen, and then cover what happens."[10] Will Sommer, an editor at The Hill, has said Posobiec "make[s] stuff up, relentlessly", and that "there's no one at that level."[4]

Conspiracy theories, falsehoods, and unsubstantiated claims

Support for Donald Trump

During the 2016 election, Posobiec was a special projects director of Citizens for Trump, a pro-Trump organization.[17]

  • Posobiec led a campaign in November 2016 to discredit anti-Trump protesters by planting a sign at a protest reading "Rape Melania".[24][25][26] He later denied his involvement and said he had been questioned about it by the Secret Service.[4]
  • Posobiec was an organizer of the DeploraBall, an event held on January 19, 2017, to celebrate Trump's inauguration.[27]
  • For two months in 2017, Posobiec was a correspondent for The Rebel, a far-right Canada-based website.[17] He was granted press access to the White House in April 2017, but he left the next month after allegations arose that he had engaged in plagiarism.[4] According to Philadelphia magazine, during his short time in the White House press pool Posobiec "seems to have been charged in the press briefing room with haranguing legitimate journalists and running out the clock on press conferences with inane softball questions and Dear Leader obsequiousness."[4]
  • On June 16, 2017, Posobiec disrupted a Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar that depicted the title character as a President Trump-like figure. Posobiec was prompted by Mike Cernovich, another alt-right conspiracy theorist, who had offered a $1,000 prize for anyone who interrupted the play.[28] Posobiec was escorted from the event along with fellow protester Laura Loomer, who was arrested for disorderly conduct after refusing to leave the stage.[4]

Race relations

  • In September 2016, Posobiec praised Richard Spencer on Twitter as "indispensable". He later sought to distance himself from the white supremacist, deleting his supporting tweets and calling Spencer a "scumbag".[29]
  • In October 2016, Posobiec posted a tweet that included triple parentheses, an anti-semitic meme.[30]
  • In August 2017, following a "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that led to violent clashes between white nationalists and anti-protesters, Posobiec said that the rally had become "massive propaganda" for the left and that the mainstream media was "fanning the flames of this violence." He said that Trump should have disavowed Black Lives Matter. Posobiec later tweeted that he had consistently disavowed white nationalism and violence.[12] He also tweeted that he was "done with trolling" and that it was "time to do the right thing."[4]
  • He has repeatedly published information regarding "1488", or the Fourteen Words, and has been reported in media to be a supporter of the slogan.[31][32]

Gun violence

  • On June 4, 2017, Posobiec tweeted, "There's never been a terrorist attack at a Nascar race. Nascar fans are all armed. Draw your own conclusions." His comment was widely ridiculed on social media.[33]
  • Posobiec organized a "Rally Against Political Violence" in Washington, D.C. on June 25, 2017 to condemn the shooting of Scalise. The rally drew a sparse crowd. Richard Spencer, another alt-right figure who organized a separate, competing rally at the same time, ridiculed Posobiec's event and called it "pathetic".[34]

Other elections

Other activities

  • In July 2017, Posobiec handed out flyers thanking Democratic senators for "protecting our quality violent porn content", including "ritual Satanic porn videos". The flyers were distributed outside the U.S. Senate at a demonstration in support of net neutrality.[38]
  • On August 16, 2017, Posobiec participated in a small protest of a statue of Vladimir Lenin in Seattle, Washington, to have it removed.[39]
  • In April 2018, Posobiec criticized Google for not having a Doodle for Easter.[40]

Personal life

From 2012 to 2016, Posobiec ran a blog and podcast about Game of Thrones called AngryGoTFan.[9]

Posobiec married Tanya Tay, a Belorusian,[4] in November 2017.[41]

On January 24, 2018, the dating app Bumble removed Posobiec from its platform, after the company was alerted and linked the profile with his Facebook account.[42] Posobiec denied ever having a Bumble account and said he would file an identity theft complaint.[41]

References

  1. ↑ Posobiec, Jack. "I ask for but one thing on my birthday tomorrow..." Twitter. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  2. ↑ "An inside look at One America News, the insurgent TV network taking 'pro-Trump' to new heights". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2017-10-21.
  3. ↑ Sperling, Nicole. "Disney Fires Guardians of the Galaxy Director James Gunn". HWD. Retrieved 2018-07-22.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Valania, Jonathan (September 16, 2017). "How Jack Posobiec Became the King of Fake News". Philadelphia.
  5. ↑
    • Peters, Jeremy W. (June 10, 2017). "A Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theorist, a False Tweet and a Runaway Story". The New York Times.
    • Colleen Shalby (August 14, 2017). "Trump retweets alt-right media figure who pushed 'PizzaGate' and Seth Rich conspiracy theories". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035.
    • "Trump retweets alt-right conspiracy theorist amid Charlottesville fallout". Business Insider. August 15, 2017.
    • Peters, Jeremy W. (2017-11-03). "Alternative Narrative Emerges in Conservative Media as Russia Inquiry Widens". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-11-04.
  6. ↑ Weisman, Jonathan (March 17, 2018). "Anti-Semitism Is Rising. Why Aren't American Jews Speaking Up?". The New York Times.
  7. 1 2 3 Kube, Courtney (August 16, 2017). "Right-Winger Jack Posobiec, Retweeted by Trump, Is Navy Intel Officer". NBC News.
  8. ↑ https://twitter.com/jackposobiec/status/804174206388801536?lang=en
  9. 1 2 3 4 Lamoureux, Mack (May 17, 2017). "How This 'Game of Thrones' Blogger Made His Way Into the White House". Vice.com.
  10. 1 2 Marantz, Andrew (May 7, 2017). "The Far-Right American Nationalist Who Tweeted #MacronLeaks". The New Yorker.
  11. ↑ Watkins, Eli; Sciutto, Jim (August 16, 2017). "Security clearance under review for right-wing activist Trump retweeted". CNN.
  12. 1 2 Schmidt, Samantha (August 15, 2017). "Trump retweets right-wing provocateur known for pushing false conspiracy theories". The Washington Post.
  13. ↑ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-france-cyber-activist-idUSKBN187008
  14. 1 2 Peters, Jeremy W. (10 June 2017). "A Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theorist, a False Tweet and a Runaway Story" – via NYTimes.com.
  15. ↑ Fisher, Marc; Cox, John Woodrow; Hermann3, Peter (December 6, 2016). "Pizzagate: From rumor, to hashtag, to gunfire in D.C." The Washington Post.
  16. ↑ Nickalls, Sammy (December 8, 2016). "Now Trump Supporters Are Boycotting Star Wars Based on No Evidence". Esquire.
  17. 1 2 3 4 Lytvynenko, Jane (May 29, 2017). "Pro-Trump Media Figure And Conspiracy Theory Peddler Jack Posobiec Is Out At The Rebel". BuzzFeed.
  18. ↑ Evon, Dan (June 5, 2017). "Did CNN Delete an Article Defending Bill Maher's Use of a Racial Slur?". Snopes.com.
  19. ↑ Whelan, Aubrey (June 18, 2017). "Tracing right-wing alt-reality on Twitter". Philly.com.
  20. ↑ Shalby, Colleen (June 14, 2017). "How fake news starts: Trump supporters tie Bernie Sanders to Alexandria shooting using a fake quote". Los Angeles Times.
  21. ↑ Hayden, Michael Edison (December 18, 2017). "Antifa' Falsely Linked to Amtrak Train Derailment by Right-Wing Conspiracy Peddlers". Newsweek.
  22. ↑ "Pro-Trump Bloggers Are Trying To Disown The Alt-Right Brand After Charlottesville". HuffPost. August 16, 2017.
  23. ↑ "Trump Retweets Alt-Right Leader Who Has Praised White Supremacist Richard Spencer". Newsweek. August 15, 2017.
  24. ↑ Borchers, Callum. "How one deplorable sign at an anti-Trump protest foreshadows the fight over fake news". Washington Post.
  25. ↑ "From Alt Right to Alt Lite: Naming the Hate". Anti-Defamation League.
  26. ↑ Holpuch, Amanda; Rawlinson, Kevin (15 August 2017). "Trump's erratic early morning Twitter retweets include one calling him fascist" – via The Guardian.
  27. ↑ Weiner, Rachel (December 15, 2016). "Clarendon Ballroom gets harassing calls after declining to host Trump backers' 'DeploraBall'". The Washington Post.
  28. ↑ Wang, Amy B (June 17, 2017). "Pro-Trump protester arrested after rushing stage at controversial 'Julius Caesar' production in New York". The Washington Post.
  29. ↑ "Trump retweeted an alt-right figurehead who has praised white supremacist Richard Spencer". Newsweek. 2017-08-15. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  30. ↑ Hayden, Michael Edison (January 25, 2018). "White Supremacist, Neo-Nazi Accounts Still Active on Twitter After a So-Called Purge". Newsweek.
  31. ↑ "Replying to @JackPosobiec". Cody Johnston (journalist). 24 July 2018.
  32. ↑ "Florida State Rep. Wants Attacking "Political Affiliation" to Be Hate Crime". Miami New Times. 28 September 2017.
  33. ↑ Boult, Adam (June 5, 2017). "Would arming the public prevent terror attacks? Pro-gun commentator prompts mass derision". The Telegraph.
  34. ↑ Resnick, Gideon (June 25, 2017). "Alt-Right Boss Attacks Trump's 'Repulsive and Creepy' Fanboys". The Daily Beast.
  35. ↑ Koff, Stephen (October 2, 2017). "Backing Josh Mandel, controversial figures launch super PAC". The Plain Dealer.
  36. ↑ "Roy Moore's accuser's photo and workplace were spread on Twitter by a far-right conspiracist". Newsweek. 2017-11-10. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
  37. ↑ Nguyen, Tina (March 13, 2018). ""The G.O.P. Is Full of Morons": Even the Pro-Trump World Gave Up on Rick Saccone". Vanity Fair.
  38. ↑ Collins, Ben (12 July 2017). "Alt-Right Claims Net Neutrality Promotes 'Satanic Porn' in Planted Flyers". The Daily Beast.
  39. ↑ O'Brien, Kirsten; Cohen, Stephen (August 17, 2017). "Small group calls for removal of Fremont's Lenin statue". Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
  40. ↑ Al-Sibai, Noor (April 2, 2018). "Conservative reporter slams Fox News for using Pizzagate conspiracy theorist to attack Google for 'snubbing' Easter". The Raw Story.
  41. 1 2 Notopoulos, Katie (January 24, 2018). "Bumble Just Kicked Off A Pro-Trump Media Personality As Part Of Its "Stance Against Hate"". BuzzFeed.
  42. ↑ Musaddique, Shafi. "Bumble dating app boots white nationalist leader Jack Posobiec in crack down on hate speech". Independent. Independent. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
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