Jack Posobiec Interviewed a Pro-Hitler Disinformation Poster on One America News Network
Jack Posobiec, a correspondent for One America News Network (OANN), brought a pseudonymous disinformation poster onto the air without providing context of that person鈥檚 hateful and terroristic beliefs, Hatewatch found.
Posobiec produced a segment for OANN in September 2018 in which he interviewed 鈥淢icrochip,鈥� who was at that time a pseudonymous contributor to the white-supremacist-friendly website Gab. Microchip achieved notoriety during Trump鈥檚 2016 run for president for his involvement in a number of . Posobiec also linked his Twitter followers to Microchip鈥檚 Gab feed after the interview was aired, archives show. Microchip posted statements to Gab prior to being interviewed on OANN that celebrated
鈥淚 wish [Atomwaffen Division] had survived. They did great work in scaring the living shit out of everyone,鈥� the person behind the Microchip Gab account wrote on July 24, 2018, . 鈥淲e need more hatred and fear. Everyone needs to stop being such f------ p------.鈥�
Atomwaffen Division聽is a terroristic neo-Nazi group responsible for at least five murders in the U.S. since 2017. On July 14, John Cameron Denton of Atomwaffen Division, who goes by the online moniker 鈥淩ape,鈥� pled guilty to charges related to 鈥渟watting鈥� journalists, which means calling police on false grounds to the homes of people in an effort to provoke accidental violence against them.
Hatewatch documented Microchip鈥檚 Gab posts extensively at the time Posobiec brought him onto the air, and they are virulently hateful. In addition to writing 鈥淗itler 2.0 is coming and it is glorious,鈥� he called black Congresswoman Maxine Waters a 鈥� ,鈥� in response to President Trump saying she had a 鈥渓ow IQ.鈥� In another Gab post, Microchip expressed hatred for 人兽性交 people, Jews and people of color by employing a litany of slurs. Hatewatch has chosen not to reproduce the hatred and profanity in this post, but readers can view a 聽of the full content. He also wrote on Gab that 鈥�.鈥� OANN noted to Hatewatch that their segment featuring Microchip is 鈥渁ctive.鈥� . Posobiec, however, appears to have deleted a tweet promoting it to his followers.
Microchip called Posobiec his online 鈥榖uddy鈥� and they spread disinformation together
Posobiec based the OANN segment with Microchip on claims the pseudonymous personality made about inventing 鈥淨Anon,鈥� along with the help of one other person. No one has been able to prove Microchip鈥檚 claims, which are based on screenshots he said were taken on the gaming app Discord. QAnon is a conspiracy theory modeled loosely on the idea that a government official with inside information is speaking to Trump supporters through secret online channels. Posobiec protected Microchip鈥檚 identity in the segment OANN aired by using an illustrated image of a man in a red hat and allowing him to speak through a voice distorter.
Posobiec has an apparent personal connection to Microchip that goes beyond interviewing him on OANN. Posobiec referred to what he claimed was the creator of QAnon as his friend in a tweet he . He made the claim six months after he produced the segment reporting that Microchip created QAnon with another person. Posobiec and Microchip both promoted fake antifa Twitter accounts as part of a disinformation campaign intended to discredit the leftist protest movement, .
鈥淲ell seeing as QAnon was started by two guys that are friends of mine, wouldn't that make sense?鈥� he wrote in response to a comment that he 鈥渟peaks the same language鈥� as QAnon.
Hatewatch reached out to Microchip over the gaming app Discord to ask him about that statement. He described Posobiec as his 鈥渂uddy just through the internet鈥� and said the OANN correspondent 鈥渄oesn鈥檛 know who [he is],鈥� regarding his true identity.
Microchip has published disinformation for years. He became a fixture on Gab after being 聽repeatedly. In March 2016, he helped make the hashtag #CruzSexScandal 聽on Twitter, referring to a fake story about the Texas senator, who was then opposing Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. He along with Posobiec. He also promoted a fake story that Barack Obama and George Soros 聽at his inauguration.
From white supremacist websites to Posobiec鈥檚 Twitter followers
Posobiec鈥檚 promotion of Microchip鈥檚 Gab account is one of many instances Hatewatch found of the OANN correspondent boosting content from fringe websites that are heavily frequented by white supremacists to his substantial Twitter following.
On , roughly one year before he started with OANN, Posobiec directed his followers to a link on 8chan鈥檚 鈥減ol,鈥� a forum that was at that time dominated by antisemitic, racist and terroristic users. Two months later, on July 4, 2017, Posobiec referenced 8chan again, announcing that the forum had published the personal information of CNN reporters. Far-right terrorists聽posted apparent manifestos to 8chan, making the forum globally infamous. Cloudflare, a hosting service, ultimately 聽after the El Paso Wal-Mart terror attack, in which one of its users was suspected of killing 聽in a shooting spree.
In the Posobiec post alerting his followers to the publication of private information about CNN reporters, a Twitter user replied with the name and address of CNN employees such as Wolf Blitzer, Don Lemon and Brian Stelter. (Hatewatch is 聽rather than the archive of it to avoid republishing that private information.) Someone with the handle @DarkTriadMan wrote, 鈥�#DoxCNN鈥� and 鈥�#CNNKarma鈥� underneath Posobiec鈥檚 tweet. 鈥�8chan is so ruthless Google delisted them,鈥� a Twitter user with the handle @SonofLiberty54 wrote in the replies to Posobiec鈥檚 tweet.
As recently as May 15, Posobiec an article about antifa from an obscure website operated by 鈥淓ric Striker.鈥� Eric Striker is the pseudonym of Joseph Jordan, a neo-Nazi from Queens, New York, who attended the 鈥淯nite the Right鈥� rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and once wrote hundreds of posts for the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer. Jordan once 聽鈥渘eed to be driven out of America.鈥� Like Posobiec, Jordan promoted #Pizzagate. At the time Posobiec tweeted out the post linking to Jordan鈥檚 website, only a handful of other, much smaller Twitter accounts had done so, . Posobiec鈥檚 link to Jordan鈥檚 website was ultimately retweeted hundreds of times, causing the article to spread.
Posobiec responded to a request for comment on this series in April by claiming to have called the FBI on Hatewatch. In the first three stories in this series, Hatewatch detailed Posobiec鈥檚 connections to the white supremacist movement, his embrace of internet slang used by white supremacists to target Jews with harassment, and his connections to and promotion of Poland鈥檚 neo-fascist movement. He did not reply to a voice message Hatewatch left on July 8 offering him an additional opportunity to comment on the stories in this series.
Robert Herring, the CEO of OANN, portrayed Hatewatch鈥檚 effort to report on Posobiec鈥檚 ties to the white supremacist movement as 鈥渁 guilt by association fallacy鈥� and 鈥渁 typical smear tactic鈥� in April. Herring did not respond to a follow-up email Hatewatch sent on July 22聽after the publication of the first three聽stories in this series.
Photo illustration by 人兽性交
