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Website Labeled ‘Fake News’ Threatens To Sue WaPo For Defamation
Daily Caller ^ | December 5, 2016 | Rachel Stoltzfoos

Posted on 12/05/2016 1:49:26 PM PST by grundle

One of the websites The Washington Post labeled “fake news” in a November story demanded a retraction and threatened the paper with a defamation lawsuit in a demand letter Sunday.

A lawyer for Naked Capitalism accuses WaPo of running a debunked list of “fake news” sites in the “sensational” story compiled by a dubious team of researchers, without substantiating their claims or giving Naked Capitalism a chance to respond to the allegation. The Washington Post’s actions constitute defamation, the lawyer writes in the letter published Monday.

“You did not provide even a single example of ‘fake news’ allegedly distributed or promoted by Naked Capitalism or indeed any of the 200 sites on the PropOrNot blacklist,” James A. Moody writes. “You provided no discussion or assessment of the credentials or backgrounds of these so-called ‘researchers’ (Clint Watts, Andrew Weisburd, and J.M. Berger and the ‘team’ at PropOrNot), and no discussion or analysis of the methodology, protocol or algorithms such ‘researchers’ may or may not have followed.”

Naked Capitalism is a finance and economics blog started in December 2006, with a stated goal of “shedding light on the dark and seamy corners of finance.”

Moody demands a retraction of the story and a public apology from WaPo in the letter, threatening a suit if the paper does not comply. He lists a series of damages to the site itself, as well as the writers and editors associated with the site; these include “ridicule, emotional distress, loss of reputation, and risk to future career advancement” for writers and editors.

Other mainstream news outlets criticize The Washington Post for running the story.

“The organization’s anonymity, which a spokesperson maintained was due to fear of Russian hackers, added a cybersexy mystique,” Adrian Chen wrote in The New Yorker regarding the WaPo story. “But a close look at the report showed that it was a mess.”

And Patrick Maines criticized the story in The Hill, calling it “perhaps the shoddiest piece of feature writing since Rolling Stone published its blatantly false story about a campus rape at the University of Virginia.”

“You have made damaging false accusations against Naked Capitalism,” Moody concludes in the letter. “Please immediately remove these from the web and provide an equivalent opportunity to respond. Please see the attached concerning your obligation to retain documents and electronically stored information relating to Fake News. I look forward to hearing from you within three business days.”


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: defamation; fakenews; lawsuit; mediabias; nakedcapitalism; newmedia; wp
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To: x

Some time ago I read at the Reddit site that Besta Pizza changed the logo...


41 posted on 12/05/2016 3:44:35 PM PST by bronxville (Americanism not Globalism)
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To: grundle

bkmk


42 posted on 12/05/2016 3:49:51 PM PST by Sergio (An object at rest cannot be stopped! - The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight)
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To: x

This is Washington, DC. My guess is the police overlook anything that doesn’t have a complaint attached to it. If no one has complained, why would they pay attention? Aside from how many of them are involved?

Haven’t you ever wondered how our representatives and senators do a fair job at home, good enough to get elected and sent to Washington and then much of the time do a 180 on promises? It has seemed obvious to me for years, the majority are being paid off or blackmailed.

I believe they are sucked in to immorality and corruption or promised power and wealth and then they vote as they are told.


43 posted on 12/05/2016 3:58:39 PM PST by Duchess47 ("One day I will leave this world and dream myself to Reality" Crazy Horse)
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To: justlurking

You apparently don’t understand the current condition of the FBI and DOJ. And that is scary.

“The FBI wouldn’t take your claims/evidence seriously” doesn’t quite cut it, since Comey gave a press conference saying that Hillary was grossly negligent but not guilty of breaking the law that makes gross negligence a crime.

Anybody who still doesn’t understand the role of the FBI and DOJ leadership in obstructing justice for political purposes has a serious problem. That’s regardless of what said person says about “Pizzagate”.


44 posted on 12/05/2016 3:59:51 PM PST by butterdezillion
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To: grundle

We already know the list is politically biased.

Meet leftist prof who wrote ‘hit list’ of ‘fake’ news sites
Trump-basher ‘feminist’ blacklists WND, Breitbart, Blaze, O’Keefe’s Project Veritas
http://www.wnd.com/2016/11/meet-leftist-prof-who-wrote-hit-list-of-fake-news-sites/#LARdMDwk61aLl17P.99


45 posted on 12/05/2016 4:08:45 PM PST by tbw2
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To: miss marmelstein
I’m pretty sick of you antis.

Not nearly as sick as I am of yours, and everyone else's. Free Republic is being destroyed by crap like this.

What's it going to take for you to see how stupid this is? Another "pizzagate" investigator going to harass someone, and getting killed?

You’ve scared off some very smart people with your bullying.

If they think "pizzagate" is real, they aren't very smart. The truly smart people are indeed departing, because they are sick of this.

But, demanding actual evidence or victims isn't "bullying". The true bullies are the ones that are accusing people of crimes with no evidence, or even a victim.

Yes, I get it: you don't like them.

Yes, I get it: they are into things you don't like.

But, you don't get to accuse people of crimes just because you don't like them.

If you do, then You are the bully.

This is exactly what went on in East Germany: the Stasi had around 20% of the population informing for them, and all it took was an unsubstantiated accusation to ruin someone's life.

If that's what you want, there are still a few garden spots in the world that would welcome you.

Why don’t you give it a rest?

I would ask you, and everyone else the same thing. Why don't you give it a rest? You don't have any evidence or victims, and you won't accept that you don't.

So, why don't you just take it somewhere else, where no one will challenge you? Or are you just another precious snowflake that can't handle someone that disagrees with you?

46 posted on 12/05/2016 4:34:22 PM PST by justlurking (#TurnOffCNN)
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To: BeauBo
Sorry, you don't get to link your conspiracy theory to a real crime, especially with sketches that look like half of the Caucasian men in the world.

Here's what is actually happening:

Scotland Yard to pursue new lead in disappearance of Madeleine McCann

According to The Sun, detectives are looking into a tip that traffickers from Europe kidnapped the then 3-year-old after taking photographs of her.

47 posted on 12/05/2016 4:39:12 PM PST by justlurking (#TurnOffCNN)
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To: BeauBo
Do you have actual evidence of a crime? Where is it?

Do you have an actual victim? With all the publicity, someone would have come forward by now. Who are they?

I'm waiting.

48 posted on 12/05/2016 4:40:57 PM PST by justlurking (#TurnOffCNN)
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To: butterdezillion
You apparently don’t understand the current condition of the FBI and DOJ. And that is scary.

OK, so you don't want to go to the FBI.

But, if you have evidence of a crime -- where is it?

If you know about a victim, who is he or she?

And if you don't have it, who does? And, what do they have?

You can't wave away these predicate requirements for an investigation, just by saying the FBI or DoJ wouldn't investigate.

And I'll reiterate: I want to see evidence of an actual crime, or a person that claims to be a victim.

I don't want to hear about things you don't like, or think are weird, or is associated with people you disagree with.

49 posted on 12/05/2016 4:47:16 PM PST by justlurking (#TurnOffCNN)
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To: x

They had the “old” logo as late as of November 2015...you can check to see when it changed using the “Web Archive”.

https://web.archive.org/web/20151103042311/http://mybestapizza.com/

https://archive.org/web/

http://mybestapizza.com


50 posted on 12/05/2016 4:51:27 PM PST by Drago
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To: grundle

51 posted on 12/05/2016 4:53:26 PM PST by JediJones (We must deport all liberals until we can figure out what the hell is going on.)
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To: justlurking

Don’t back down.

Many of our FRiends here get caught up in magical thinking, where they believe if they just believe in something long enough, even if there is no or contradictory evidence, it will become true.

The FBI stuff is a little harsh, but sometimes you just have to tell them to put up (with real stuff, not just not even pretty coincidental stuff) or take it elsewhere.


52 posted on 12/05/2016 5:27:45 PM PST by VanShuyten ("a shadow...draped nobly in the folds of a gorgeous eloquence.")
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To: grundle

Must be the place to go for true and accurate Finance and Economy news.


53 posted on 12/05/2016 5:32:00 PM PST by uncitizen (Boycotts Work! #DumpKelloggs)
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To: justlurking
From the article that you linked:

"The latest information is being pursued as Scotland Yard has been given more money to look into what is being called an “important” new lead in Madeleine’s disappearance. “There is specific information which is being investigated,”"

It may well be that people have forwarded pizzagate info to the authorities, as you have proposed (actually a load of new information was released in Podesta's emails by wikileaks - hundreds of emails using well know pedophile code words, which make no sense when read as plain text).

Sir Clement Freud (grandson of Sigmund Freud) has been newly identified as a long time pedophile, and is newly being investigated in the kidnapping of Madeleine McCann (the VICTIM) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/14/sir-clement-freud-exposed-as-a-paedophile-as-police-urged-to-pro/ .

Coincidentally, he was also a long term friend of the Podesta brothers, and let them stay at his house in Portugal, a short walk from where Madeleine was abducted. He sent John Podesta an email to that effect, viewable from wikileaks. Coincidentally, John Podesta deleted his emails from before Madeleine's abduction, the very day after Madeleine's abduction.

In Feb 2014, Podesta made reference to Mark Bittman's girlfriend "Maddy" in another wikileaks email, in reference to a living person. Coincidentally, in the article you linked, the Sun reports on the Scotland Yard investigation that, "This is an important new line of inquiry... “It raises hope that she could still be alive."

The Podestas have many pedophile friends. Billionaire Jeffery Epstein is perhaps the most famous (convicted of sex crimes with minors, hosted Bill Clinton at least 26 times on his "Lolita Island"). Few normal people have such extensive networks of pedophile friends.

Oh, one of the other suspect sketchs looks a lot like Jeffery Epstein's "procuress" Ghislaine Maxwell


54 posted on 12/05/2016 5:37:27 PM PST by BeauBo
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To: justlurking
people that claim to have first found coded messages in Podesta's email....spread by the mentally ill.

So I'll ask you again, just as I have several times already, without a response (other than your consistent personal attacks hiding your inability to answer).

What does just one of the statements from Podesta's e-mail regarding "a handkerchief with a pizza-related map on it" mean, exactly?

You go from thread to thread claiming we're mentally ill, yet you still can't seem to answer one of the most basic questions of pizzagate.

Again, what does just one of the statements from Podesta's e-mail regarding "a handkerchief with a pizza-related map on it" mean, exactly?

Try to remember, I didn't write that e-mail.

55 posted on 12/05/2016 7:02:45 PM PST by Golden Eagle (In God We Trust)
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To: justlurking
There are genuinely "fake news" sites

Glad you're here at FR to carry the mainstream media's narrative ahead for them. /s

56 posted on 12/05/2016 7:04:29 PM PST by Golden Eagle (In God We Trust)
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To: justlurking
it doesn't take more than a few minutes to see that it's silly.

This picture taken from the back room at Comet Pizza is silly? Looks pretty serious to me.


57 posted on 12/05/2016 7:07:09 PM PST by Golden Eagle (In God We Trust)
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To: justlurking
I'm really hoping that some of the people that believe in "pizzagate" will take the time for some self-examination, and ask how they are really different from him.

And many of us are wondering when you're finally going to do some self-examination, and ask how you are any different from the typically liberal spokesperson insisting the Clintons are completely innocent from any possibly investigation going forward.

58 posted on 12/05/2016 7:10:33 PM PST by Golden Eagle (In God We Trust)
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To: justlurking
Pizzagate has yet to yield one single crime, or even one single alleged victim.

There were already several alleged victims to Jeffery Epstein, who are now of age to speak publicly, as I've already referred to you, that helped fuel this investigation from the start. Yet you still seem incapable of answering their claims.

Not to mention you're apparently oblivious to the laws that protect the identity of underage children should they have been potentially be affected by this.

59 posted on 12/05/2016 7:14:25 PM PST by Golden Eagle (In God We Trust)
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To: miss marmelstein
You’re a bit of a bully, aren’t you?

He's clearly an 'intellectual' (LOL) who doesn't have time for anything more than what the NY Times or Washington Post reports on this, and insists anything else is "fake news". Tries to go by the handle 'justlurking' but has the biggest mouth of anyone on here, especially on this subject which he clearly knows very little about, nor is he dare willing to learn.

60 posted on 12/05/2016 7:18:29 PM PST by Golden Eagle (In God We Trust)
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