Right Wing Blogger Chuck C. Johnson Is Now a Real Live Stalker
Today at Talking Points Memo, Tom Kludt has a report on our pal Chuck C. Johnson, who has now crossed a major line into outright stalking behavior. The target: yours truly.
After a pitstop for an Italian dinner on Tuesday night, right-wing agitator Charles C. Johnson showed up at what he thought was the residence of his biggest online adversary — a man who just so happens to share his name — and snapped photos of himself standing outside the complex’s gate holding conspiracy theory bumper stickers.
Johnson said he retrieved the address to the Pacific Palisades apartment online.
“At the world headquarters of Little Green Footballs…” Johnson tweeted, appending a hashtag to signify his latest obsession.
Here’s his tweet:
At the world headquarters of Little Green Footballs…. #Ebola pic.twitter.com/9Yxci3wyiL
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) October 29, 2014
But in Chuck’s usual incompetent way, he went to the wrong place to stalk me.
Little Green Footballs, of course, is the online home of blogger Charles Johnson. But the apartment shown in the tweet hasn’t been his actual home for more than 10 years.
“Actually, when I first saw it I didn’t recognize the place because I haven’t lived there for so long,” Johnson of Little Green Footballs told TPM on Wednesday. “I thought he was just making a joke at first and I looked at it again and realized that’s the place I used to live.”
Here’s how he attempts to justify this threatening behavior; note that it’s extremely common for a stalker to accuse the target of being “the real stalker.”
“The lesser Charles Johnson encouraged his followers to stalk me for daring to report the name of the Ebola nurse, Nina Pham, 12 hours before the rest of the media,” the founder of the fledgling GotNews said in the email. “He’s kind of crazy and I’ve talked to law enforcement about what can be done about his sending stalkers my way. Showing up at his apartment complex door was intended as something of a joke. I knew he would go nuts on Twitter all night, which he promptly did.”
The lies in this statement are numerous:
- I never encouraged anyone to "stalk" Chuck. Not once. It didn't happen.
- I never "sent stalkers his way," and I seriously doubt he ever "talked to law enforcement." Filing a false police report is a crime.
- This was definitely not a joke. It was very obviously intended to scare me, to stop me from criticizing him.
- I didn't "go nuts on Twitter all night," although Chuck himself has done this more than once.
Here’s what I told Tom Kludt about this:
The Little Green Footballs founder didn’t find it funny, calling it a “total violation of privacy.”
“For somebody who calls himself a journalist to do something like this, it’s way, way over the line,” he told TPM. “If I had kids, I’d be even more upset. This is basically threatening. The guy has posted pictures of himself holding guns online. It’s a very threatening, stalker-ish thing to do. What can I say? I’m just very upset about it.”
Since this article was published, Chuck is now openly bragging on Twitter about stalking me, saying it was “a joke,” and at the same time repeating his false claims that he’s the real victim.
Relax, guys. I don’t need where @green_footballs actually lives to make my point. I didn’t want to drive to Culver City in rush hour.
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) October 30, 2014
I love how @tpm calls me a “stalker” for walking by an actual stalker’s former home with an #ebola sticker. It’s so absurd.
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) October 30, 2014
The lesser Charles Johnson is upset because I have photos of myself exercising the Second Amendment. The horror! #2A
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) October 30, 2014
@Green_Footballs @TPM @safety @Support please ignore my actual stalker. He doesn’t live there. It’s like walkingn by the Hollywood sign.
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) October 30, 2014
@anildash just so you know, @green_footballs was encouraging his followers to stalk me long before I showed up at his old house
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) October 30, 2014
@stevesilberman @Green_Footballs I have. He encouraged his followers to stalk me.
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) October 30, 2014
All I have to add to what I told Talking Points Memo is that if Chuck thought he was going to scare me into shutting up about him, he made a serious miscalculation.
(Note: the tweets above are shown in text form because Johnson’s Twitter account has been suspended and they’re no longer available on Twitter.)