Report: Man allegedly behind viral ‘Drunk Pelosi’ video may sue reporter who revealed his identity
June 3, 2019
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The man accused of being behind the “Drunk Pelosi” video is considering suing the journalist who tried to ruin his life.
The video’s alleged creator was “doxxed” by Daily Beast reporter-slash-internet-hall-monitor Kevin Poulsen on Saturday. But although Poulsen evidently tried to ruin the man’s life, things did not go exactly as Poulsen predicted; the Daily Beast writer was heavily criticized — including by leftist journalists — for his shameful conduct.
Letting the cat out of the bag
In this era of Fake News, left-wing journalists have taken on the role of tattletales who publish information about private citizens who don’t toe the line of their narrative. So when the Daily Beast got a “scoop” on who created the viral “Drunk Pelosi” video, they didn’t hesitate to share this Pulitzer Prize-worthy discovery with the world.
Poulsen presented the “scoop” like hard-hitting, breaking news, hot off the wire, tweeting: “NEW: I went looking for the Russian troll behind the ‘Drunk Pelosi’ viral video hoax. Turns out he’s an itinerant forklift operator from the Bronx who’s been secretly running hard-right ‘news’ outlets across social media for years. Also, not Russian.”
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This is what journalists concern themselves with in the era of Russian delusion, apparently: hunting for “Russian trolls,” and harming private citizens in the process. The Beast’s “story” identified the man by name, listed his employment and unrelated criminal history, and included his photograph, which was deleted Sunday night.
Lawsuit coming?
The “Drunk Pelosi” video generated controversy amid a feud between President Donald Trump and the speaker of the House last month, as Trump retweeted a similar but different video that was manipulated to emphasize Pelosi’s difficulty speaking. The “Drunk Pelosi” video, uploaded by the group Politics WatchDog, is slowed down to make it appear that the California Democrat is intoxicated.
The man identified by the Beast denied posting the video, saying it was shared instead by another member of the group. The man set up a “legal action fund” and is now thinking about suing the Daily Beast for publishing the “trash” article.
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was associated in publishing that inaccurate trash article about me, misquoting me, and accusing me of being the creator of the Speaker Pelosi video that went viral,” the man told the Washington Examiner.
The trouble with doxxing
Doxxing incidents like this show modern journalism at its worst. Reporters take it upon themselves to behave as blatant partisans running interference for the Democratic Party, in this case protecting the fragile emotions of those offended by a frivolous video.
Democrats including Hillary Clinton complained when Facebook refused to delete the video, which was viewed millions of times. Clinton called it “sexist trash,” while Pelosi called it an example of Facebook facilitating Russian interference in American government.
Still, doxxing the video’s creator serve no journalistic purpose; his identity is irrelevant to the story. Conservative writer Stephen Miller said as much on Twitter before calling the doxxing “enemy of the people s***.”
I love the “Russian troll” cover here. “Hey we thought it was a Russian troll” literally no one thought that. Media using their bylines to go after and intimidate private citizens for internet videos they don’t like is literally enemy of the people shit.
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Enemy of the people
Meanwhile, The Wrap media editor Jon Levine described the story as “[a] hit job on a completely private citizen…over a joke video of Pelosi that happened to go viral.” Huffington Post and New York Magazinecontributor Yashar Ali tweeted:
[I]t sets a really bad precedent when a private citizen, particularly someone who is working a blue collar job, has their identity publicly revealed simply because they made a video of a politician appearing to be drunk. His identity offers nothing to this story.
Others noted that journalists who were part of the Covington Catholic smear never lifted a finger to track down the anonymous person who shared the viral, misleading clip at the basis of the whole debacle. Still, some journalists closed ranks and came to the Daily Beast’s defense,which was to be expected after the media’s reciprocal back-scratching in their post-Mueller collusion embarrassment.
Maybe there is something to that whole “enemy of the people” thing. If the media were the enemy of the people, how would they behave? Probably something like this.
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