Dem
51
GOP
49
There are few politics-centered media outlets that are more obnoxious than The Gateway Pundit (TGP), which suffers from two problems. The first is that it was literally founded to own the libs. Its creator, Jim Hoft, said at the outset (in 2004) that the site's mission was "expose the wickedness of the left." If a site is defined by its enemies, and by doing as much harm to them as is possible, there's a good chance it's not a nice site.
The second problem is that the site's relationship to facts and evidence is very similar to, well, Donald Trump's relationship to facts and evidence. TGP indulges in various conspiracy theories, of course, from Pizzagate to Obama birtherism, to the whole suite of COVID-19 whackadoodlery. On top of that, the site's writers have no compunctions about making stuff up out of whole cloth. And often, it's not just fake news, it's maliciously fake news, like falsely identifying mass shooters as liberals, or Muslims, or both. It is not a surprise that TGP is one of Trump's very favorite sites.
That said, there are a couple of problems with this business model. The first is that TGP was so fully off the rails so many times that Google finally demonetized the site. That means, to a large extent, no ad revenue. Second, it turns out—and who knew?—that the U.S. has laws about knowingly printing falsehoods. And so, the site has faced an avalanche of lawsuits over the past few years.
It would appear that actual reality trumps faux reality, because TGP was forced to file for bankruptcy this week. Hoft placed the blame on "progressive liberal lawfare attacks against our media outlet." You forgot "communist" and "pedophile" there, Jimbo. Anyhow, it's a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, so the site could possibly survive. But let's hope it doesn't; a little less poison out there is a good thing for everyone. (Z)