#Pizzagate: Vile, Disgusting, Preposterous

I first became aware of this fake "scandal" a few days before the election: In the deepest, filthiest sewers of the Internet this story bubbled up about Comet Ping Pong Pizza, a prosperous Washington, D.C., pizzeria whose owner, James Alefantis, was a Clinton supporter, though he'd never met her (D.C. voted 93% for Clinton). The "story" goes that Hillary Clinton and her campaign manager, John Podesta, were running a child sex ring out of the back rooms (which have ping-pong tables, a craft room, and a play area for kids) and basement of the pizzeria. (First clue: It doesn't have a basement.)

How did such an insane story get started? Well, Clinton's and Podesta's emails seemed to mention "pizza" quite a lot, so there must be something nefarious there; and Podesta and Alefantis actually did have cursory email discussions about the possibility of Alefantis holding a Clinton fundraiser. And Alefantis was once in a relationship with Clinton backer David Brock (they broke up five years ago).

That's it.

I'm only posting about this piece of garbage because it's been gathering steam among the trolls on the far right, to the point where it's drawn the attention of The New York Times and The Washington Post. (Click here for the WaPo story, by the Editorial Board, entitled "‘Pizzagate’ shows how fake news hurts real people"; click here for the NYT story, by Cecelia Kang, entitled "Fake News Onslaught Targets Pizzeria as Nest of Child-Trafficking."

According to the WaPo story:

The allegations against Comet Ping Pong, reported by the New York Times, are absurd on their face and detached from any gossamer thread of fact. They took root in the dark crevices of the Web and took flight thanks to social media platforms, whose witless “who, us?” posture in the face of misinformation and outright lunacy is a civic embarrassment.

More than that, the use of social media as a platform for outright lies about public figures and, in this case, malevolent rumors about a pleasant neighborhood restaurant popular with families is a menace to private lives, peace and prosperity. In response to the firestorm of anonymous death threats and warnings directed at Comet’s owner, James Alefantis, and some of his employees, D.C. police have had to deploy officers to keep an eye on the restaurant.

Here's a video clip (2:37) from WUSA-9 entitled "Online Bullies Attack DC Restaurant":




Alefantis has received hundreds of death threats. His manager has been urged by his wife to quit his job because of threats. The staff have been threatened and harassed.

With any luck, legal action can be taken against the disseminators of these vicious lies:

The First Amendment is a bulwark of democracy but provides no protection for defamatory allegations published in knowing disregard for the truth. Mr. Alefantis is more than entitled to sue for defamation and libel, if he can find the purveyors of the garbage heaved his way.

A separate question is whether criminal charges may arise from some of the threats that have been leveled at the restaurant and its owner, online and by phone. Mischief may stray into the province of criminality if it incites violence.

According to another WaPo article, by Abby Ohlheiser, entitled "Fearing yet another witch hunt, Reddit bans ‘Pizzagate’":

“Pizzagate” has yet to produce any actual evidence for its extremely weighty and life-ruining accusations, but every debunking of its claims — including the one in the Times — has only convinced its believers that they must be right, and that the circle of pedophiles and sympathizers trying to cover up their findings must be even bigger and more powerful than they imagined.

The article says:

Most troubling for Mr. Alefantis and staff has been the use of children’s images, pilfered from the restaurant’s social media pages and the personal accounts of friends who had “liked” Comet Ping Pong online. Those photos have been used across dozens of websites. Parents, who declined to talk publicly for fear of retribution, have hired lawyers to get the photos removed.

Nearly a million tweets were sent in November using the term "Pizzagate."

What a noble, inspiring, uplifting political campaign this has been.