Why It’s Pointless to Reach Out to Gateway Pundit for Comment on His Bogus Claims
I’ve had several people approach me on Twitter this week (all right wingers) and angrily tell me I should have asked Jim Hoft for comment on why he deliberately altered that now-infamous CT scan image to conceal its source.
So just for the record, I’m going to point out that I have indeed asked Hoft directly, several times, to comment on this and other debunked claims he’s made, and he simply never answers — in fact, he usually just spews dim-witted insults at me, like this:
I see Little Green Fascist is still trolling for relevance. Sad @Green_Footballs @ProgsToday— Jim Hoft (@gatewaypundit) August 24, 2014
But his associate, who uses the Twitter handle @ProgsToday, did engage with me (in a manner of speaking) about this altered image two days ago. Here’s what happened (I recommend scrolling to the bottom and reading up, to get the full flavor of the nastiness):
Evasions and ObfuscationsClearly, neither Hoft nor whoever’s behind the @ProgsToday account have any intention of answering a direct question like this. With these weaselly, sarcastic responses, we can only assume it’s because they have no answer, and that they absolutely did intend to mislead and trick their readers.
And as I’ve previously noted, it worked. You can find that altered stock image posted all over fringe right wing blogs as “Darren Wilson’s X-ray,” and this false claim even made it into Ann Coulter’s latest column.
Here are my previous attempts to get Hoft to comment on his use of a white supremacist group as a source, including an offer to publish his reply unedited. No answer.
.@gatewaypundit Would you like to comment on your use of a white supremacist hate group as a source? I’ll publish your statement unedited.
— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) August 16, 2014
But if @gatewaypundit does give me an answer on why he cited a white supremacist group at his blog, I promise to publish it unedited.
— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) August 16, 2014