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.
I am not amused.
@ Sean……I don’t argue with ideologues. If I thought I could POSSIBLY get you to reconsider your point of view I would engage with you. But that ain’t happening.
Anyway…
I was thinking the same thing with you.
Ugh. Really? That’s such stereotypical dudebro retort. Boring.
If one person uses a disproportionate amount of violence it isn’t a fist fight, it’s assault. Legally speaking, you are not allowed to use force above and beyond what is needed for self defense. You make jokes about domestic violence, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you are an abuser. You seem to be really eager to make it OK to beat a woman.
Size and power matter. Ray Rice is much bigger and stronger than Janay Rice. It would be just as reprehensible for me, an able bodied woman in my 30s to beat a 6 year old boy or a frail elderly man or a disabled man. It would be wrong to beat up someone equivalent to me in size and strength too but it would be even more immoral to beat someone weaker.
Was Creedence a racist jibe? Never heard that one.
Pathetic, you can always tell when a leftist is losing a debate. They find an escape word, like racist, bigot, or sexist. Try harder cupcake.
I see we’ve reached the NO U stage.
I’ve watched the tape. I didn’t see her smack him. I saw him assault her.
Assuming she did smack him first though, she’s responsible for the initial assault and he’s responsible for a completely disproportionate use of force in response to her assault on him which could have killed her.
“Size and power matter. Ray Rice is much bigger and stronger than Janay Rice. It would be just as reprehensible for me, an able bodied woman in my 30s to beat a 6 year old boy or a frail elderly man or a disabled man. It would be wrong to beat up someone equivalent to me in size and strength too but it would be even more immoral to beat someone weaker.”
So then gender really does matter then right?
“Cupcake.” Never heard that one before.
This one is loaded with the cliches, including the “I’m winning because I said so!” tripe.
What part of size and power is difficult for your to process? Or are you unable to imagine large female marine? Or do you believe that strong women and weak men don’t exist?
Seriously ladies….and at least one, I guess male I really do have to go. But yes, you have all fallen into a trap. A commie trap that they have been using for centuries. Its kinda like how they tell fat people they are fat because of something other them themselves. You are weak minded and impressionable. Thats why leftist filled up Jim Jones people temple. Goodnight.
And who sustained the injuries? Who got hurt? Who was the most seriously injured.
Again, this is not that difficult a concept to grasp. I suspect that you are that wonderful combination of willfully ignorant and pure assholery.
This has wandered a long, long way from “You know in your hearts, because hearts are logic, that I’m right” and yet we’re still somehow in the same subdivision.
Ahahahahahah! FUCKING PERFECT! Back to Cold War insults right before a second flounce.
I haven’t had to try all day. Is “Creedence” supposed to be a reference to the Cree or what? It’s obviously distinct from the word “credence” so I asked you for clarification. Now you’re accusing me of calling you racist. That’s kneejerk reactionary behaviour. I did no such thing. You went there, not me. Your attempt to characterise me as having done so is on you.
I don’t know if you’re racist but I am curious if the term you used is a racial reference.
Oh, and NO U! (Did I do that right?)
Stic the flounce this time, Sean. The wonky conspiracy theories were funny, but you are a true douchebag, so yeah, don’t come back.
Ooh nice. Haven’t heard that one since high school, but I suppose it’s appropriate given the level of discourse.
I have a good life in which I’m able to use my knowledge and skills to provide myself and others with a great deal. No inclination to join a communist suicide cult either. Sorry!
Yes, Sean doubting my gender while pouring out the worst stereotypes of toxic masculinity was soooooo hurtful. (Snort.) I’ll bet he thinks “real men” shouldn’t have cats either.
What do feminists have to with commercials that present men ads being too incompetent to do basic housework? Those aren’t feminist. They’re patriarchal because they reinforce the notion that housework is women’s work. In reality your gender has nothing to do with the ability to wash a dish or make dinner for the kids. Except for the fact that girls are trained to domestic work more than boys are.
I’m not sure what you’re on about with “forcing people to give them money.” Are you talking about social safety nets? Because men use those too and they benefit society as a whole. Not just feminists. Are you talking about child support? Because child support isn’t awarded to benefit women. It’s there to support the child. If a child’s parents don’t financially support him or her, the state has to do it. Since you seem to have a libertarian bent wouldn’t you rather parents take care of their kids when possible than the government? Or do you want kids to just starve?
I disappear for 15 minutes to help a baby statistician understand why the predicted intervals for log transforms get smaller as x increases and polynomial transforms predicted intervals get larger as x increases…
… and our troll is back to sitting in our punchbowl.
Should I go back and score the flounce? I’m thinking the initial flounce was a 4. At least it wasn’t a teel deer and it included a bingo-square.
With all the failures to stick, though, he’s well into the negatives.
Troll is like scotch tape on it’s eighth attempt to stick to a dusty metal wall.
Is this performance art? It’s like someone took all the stereotypical right wing rage buzzwords and mixed them up in a bowl. All that’s missing is BENGHAAAAAAZIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The “commie trap” is centuries old? Communism started in the mid 1800s. It’s not even two centuries old yet.
Is “Flounce again after recanting flounce” on the score?
Sean. I didn’t really plan on discussing domestic violence issues with a turd.
However, since you refuse to be flushed?
Battery is defined as a pattern of psychological abuse, physical abuse, and related control tactics.
It is far more likely to be perpetrated by men, BUT, all genders do it.
Ray Rice has a lot of power and money…he could do his now-wife a lot of damage if she walked away…
Plus abusers psychologically condition the victim to blame themselves for the abuse…Again, note lack of pronouns.
My GF was physically battered by her ex-GF, my guy was emotionally abused by his ex-wife so badly he almost blew his brains out.
The fact that women do abuse doesn’t change the fact that men are the majority of the aggressors.
BTW, what grade did you drop out of school? Because your vocabulary shows it.
Ok, my guy turned up in IM.
Fuck off, Sean.
How did these turds get in our punch?