On Friday, expat woman-hating woman-chaser Roosh Valizadeh put up a post on his Return of Kings blog with the sensationalized headline “Did Anita Sarkeesian Commit Felony Wire Fraud?”
Roosh breathlessly “reported” that
Two independent journalists have confirmed with the San Francisco Police Department that Anita Sarkeesian, a video game social justice warrior, may have used false pretenses to raise money for her non-profit entity. The police have said that she has not contacted them as she claimed after receiving a Twitter death threat in August. Under Federal law, this may put her on the hook for felony wire fraud.
The two “independent journalists” in question are tech journalist and self-described “fan of 4chan” Milo Yiannopoulos of Breitbart, and Davis Aurini, the cigarette-smoking, scotch-drinking, Anton LaVey-looking blogger who’s trying to raise money to make a “documentary” about the evils of Anita Sarkeesian and “social justice warriors.”
Both journalists – well, the one dude who writes for a sleazeball right-wing site and the other dude who’s not actually a journalist at all – did indeed contact the San Francisco Police Department and were told by a media spokesman that he couldn’t find a record of Sarkeesian contacting them about the threats she received in August.
This bit of “news” sent #GamerGaters and other Sarkeesian-haters around the internet into a bit of a frenzy.
But it turns out they got worked up over nothing. The police spokesman just hadn’t looked hard enough. A day after Tweeting a number of accusatory questions to Sarkeesian, Yiannopoulos had to backtrack, noting in a series of Tweets that he’d had another conversation with the SFPD, who told him that Sarkeesian had in fact reported the harassment to the FBI.
Another writer posted emails he’d gotten from the police spokesman that seemed to confirm Yiannopoulos’ updated information. In the emails, SFPD Public Information Officer Albie Esparza said that Sarkeesian had indeed contacted the SFPD in August but that the case had been handed off to the FBI. (I’ve confirmed this with Esparza .)
Given that the main “proof” that Sarkeesian was lying about the threats she said she received had just vanished into thin air, you might expect that Roosh and Aurini might, you know, correct their now-clearly incorrect posts on the subject and retract their accusations. Well, not so much.
Roosh’s post remains up, with only a brief “update” at the end, noting that “the police have changed their story and now state that they were contacted.” Aurini’s post remains unchanged, and as I write this he’s posted nothing more on the subject.
Even considering the people we’re dealing with here, the hypocrisy is breathtaking.
Roosh ends his post by declaring that
these new revelations concerning Sarkeesian show that no form of media is safe from the SJW and feminist agenda, and that we must do all the fact checking ourselves. The entire media establishment in the United States is potentially corrupt. Proceed accordingly.
Yet he refuses to frankly acknowledge that the “new revelations concerning Sarkeesian” were based on faulty information, offering instead a weasel-worded “update.”
Aurini, for his part, claims in his post to be “fight[ing] for openness and integrity within Tech and Video Game circles.” But he hasn’t bothered to update his post.
When ethical journalists discover that they were wrong about something, they acknowledge their errors and post straightforward corrections. When they get something spectacularly wrong, they apologize.
Somehow I don’t think we’ll be getting apologies from either of these guys.
And thus we get to the whole wire fraud thing. In his post, Roosh repeated a claim made by Mike Cernovich of the “game” blog Danger and Play, who tweeted:
https://twitter.com/PlayDangerously/status/510245982131335169
https://twitter.com/PlayDangerously/status/510246926990594048
As it turns out, there’s zero proof that Sarkeesian lied about anything here. And she made no direct connection between the threats and her Tweet asking for donations.
Indeed, by Cernovich’s logic it’s Davis Aurini, not Anita Sarkeesian, who’s guilty of felony wire fraud. Why?
Because in his post, he made a direct connection between his accusations against Sarkeesian and his own fundraising efforts. Here’s how he ended his piece:
Personally, I’d like to see a lot MORE documentation on Sarkeesian, because this isn’t the only claim she’s made which I suspect is fraudulent – and not just her, but all of the individuals hiding behind the shield of Social Justice, and the journalists who have been aiding and abetting them, culminating in outrage known as #GamerGate. That’s why Jordan Owen and myself have started a Patreon page, so that we can create a feature-length documentary about these people and their methods, and how they bully and victimize the very people they claim to support.
So please help us get this documentary made, so that we can fight for openness and integrity within Tech and Video Game circles, and expose the professional victims for the con artists that they are. Please support our documentary, The Sarkeesian Effect: Inside the World of Social Justice Warriors.
Given that Aurini now knows that his post was based on faulty information, and given that he hasn’t corrected his post or retracted his insinuations, could he now be guilty of felony wire fraud?
For what it’s worth, I don’t think so. While admittedly I’m no lawyer, Cernovich’s logic seems to me like a bit of a stretch.
I do feel safe in saying, however, that neither Roosh V. nor Davis Aurini should be lecturing anyone about ethics.
UPDATE: I confirmed with the SFPD that Sarkeesian had indeed called the SFPD and that the case was handed off to the FBI; the post has been updated to reflect that.
Sean is the second troll in as many days to argue that the US is the best place for women to live. Did all the misogynists get a memo or something? Someone on Io9 yesterday tried to claim that women shouldn’t US criticize foreign policy because without our influence their would be no rights for women anywhere in the world. Also, abortion isn’t a civil right so I can’t use abortion restrictions as evidence that the US is some paradise for women’s rights.
Is this going to be a new trend? Was there a memo sent to all the trolls in the land or something?
Prolly Dawkins again.
Anywho ladies, I am not gonna go back and forth on this all day. I have things to do. But I will leave you with something to chew on. You know why people make fun of feminism? Because its the furthest thing from feminine. In the early 20th century the US had some terrible social issues. They still do but it was much worse. A group of women got together and had one goal. To use their femininity to make society better. They didn’t do it by forcing people to give them money. They didn’t do it by having commercials where the man always looked like a moron. They simply wanted to use facts and logic to improve society. The reason most people bathe daily in the US, the reason why all junkyards are walled off, and dozens and dozens of other improvements in society and sanitation came from those women. They were respected women and their movement branched out to other cities and the women would meet typically at a home and seek ways to improve society. They didn’t seek big paychecks and book signings or anything. They simply wanted a better world.
Now fast forward to the early 60’s. A group of spoiled wealthy communist women who were backed by big money from rich old white guys claim to be the actual feminist movement. These women had a very simple tactic. Men = bad, woman = good, give us money you rich old white guy. They broke apart all the advancements the original feminists made and even made matters worse. They broke apart families and had children raised by strangers and made society very uncomfortable and difficult for many (including single mothers who now depend on the state). This is the group you ladies identify with. This group is a scam and I find it sad how you will back any woman who follows the simple formula of woman = oppressed, man = oppressor, send me money. Oh well, maybe things will change in the future. But with all the kids being raised in broken homes it will take a long time.
Oh, flounce fail!
If someone said women shouldn’t criticize US foreign policy then you should take it up with the man who said it (warning: straw man). However, you girls sure didn’t quiet down when Bush attacked the Taliban. Wonder why that was?
Oh, man, this is going to seriously impact Sean’s score.
“Aww. Your team lost? No wonder you’re so cranky. I’m sure a nap and binky would help.”
You missed the joke. I was making fun of the false feminist claim that domestic violence increases on sunday when football is played and especially when a mans team loses. Complete BS stat but I figured you would all catch the diss.
Oh great, troll probably lives where I do. *facepalm*
…Not that much into football, either American or “soccer” football. GF is into American football, and I am into GF, therefore I am learning about American football.
I can appreciate asscam.
This is where the cameraperson takes the videocam through a crown of NFL players at ass level.
Those guys have some really nice behinds on display in those stretchy uniform pants.
This really is objectifying men, and definitely makes me a hypocrite. But I like those butts and I cannot lie.
You realise feminism isn’t supposed to reflect the social construction of “feminine”, right? It’s whole point is to deconstruct restrictive gender roles and assigned characteristics like “ladylike” and “feminine”. There’s no reason men should be prevented from embodying any of those characteristics or women should exist within the confines of them. We should be free to exist as we are as individuals, not suppressing qualities unique to us and faking those we’ve been assigned.
You seem to have missed the bus. Not much for anyone to chew on here….
I’m going to work on the genome of a lamprey with a boy I like now. Teehee!
So, both his jokes and his flounce were fails. That is gonna impact the score, fer sure.
“You realise feminism isn’t supposed to reflect the social construction of “feminine”, right? It’s whole point is to deconstruct restrictive gender roles and assigned characteristics like “ladylike” and “feminine”.
Ohh, so when Ray Rice cracked his ole ladies jaw then thats ok? Right? Since, gender is a social construct and we can’t have those restrictive gender roles now right?
Gender is a social construct until the first woman takes a right cross from a man. Then its all sugar and spice and poor little victim and whatever……its all nonsense. Leftist stupidity thats done nothing but cripple societies all thru the world.
“You realise feminism isn’t supposed to reflect the social construction of “feminine”, right? It’s whole point is to deconstruct restrictive gender roles and assigned characteristics like “ladylike” and “feminine”.
Humm, I was always told it was about equality.
Why is it whenever something like this is brought up, people are expected to think that SOME form of horrible abusive violence is okay?
Wealthy communist backed by capitalists.
Wealthy communists backed by capitalists.
This troll’s hilarious.
Sean, say something else completely ridiculous and contradictory. I haven’t laughed this hard in days.
Hey what a second this is very interesting. Ray Rice could have been identifying himself as a woman and his fiancé could identify herself as a man. So if you take away the gender constrictions then he was actually just defending himself from an attack and knocked out that abuser. Alright Ray Rice…..you go girl!!!!!
Everyone is allowed to score flounces. There can be multiple judges. But I have important Legos to be playing with.
Restrictive gender roles are bad =/= assault is good HOW?
Assaulting people isn’t a gender role. It’s a behaviour any civilised human being doesn’t engage in in order for individuals and society to thrive. Yes, behaviour that directly impacts others should be restricted when it’s harmful and non-consensual. This has no relevance to assigned gender roles (unless shitkicking your spouse is a gender…..?)
Talk about missing the point.
Nothing contradictory again. The 60s feminist groups were started by hardcore cultural marxist and yes, they were backed with big leftist commie money. This is all factual. Who said anything about Capitalists?
Nopwm not about equality. Liberation is the goal. Also FYI is is assault when some d00d punches out another d00d too, Sean. That really shouldn’t be too hard for even you to grasp.
Equality doesn’t mean you get to assault people with impunity.
Thanks for the black out bingo. You can go now.
No, that would be assault. When one person beats up another person, that is what’s known as assault.
C’mon, Sean, this isn’t that difficult to grasp.
You need to stop trying to mansplain feminism to feminist, Sean You look a fool.
So what you’re saying is gender is a social construct until it actually interferes with life? Such as labor, military service, things like that?
Ohh, I see, so you expect people to jump to your conclusions that everyone here believes it’s okay for a woman to horribly abuse a man, because that’s what feminism is. And that it’s not wrong simply because it’s horribly abusive, only that it was wrong because a man did it to a woman.
But if gender roles don’t matter then why would it matter legally? As far as I’m concerned then Ray Rice and his fiancé had nothing more than a street fight. Because it they didn’t then obviously gender matters and is important. And therefore cannot be a social construct.