Jack Posobiec's Rise Tied to White Supremacist Movement - 2020-07-09

Jack Posobiec's Rise Tied to White Supremacist Movement July 9, 2020, Michael Edison Hayden, Southern Poverty Law Center

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Posobiec's ties to far-right extremists travel beyond borders into Europe. His connections to white supremacy are too numerous to compile into one article, so Hatewatch is running a series of stories on the correspondent's ties to the movement and promotion of it. This first story in the series lays out how Posobiec rose from being a pseudonymous Game of Thrones blogger to linking up with such white supremacists as Richard Spencer and a neo-Nazi who endorsed terrorism while using the online handle @PureWhiteEvil.

Posobiec, 34, described himself in his Twitter bio as being "fmr CBS News" during chapters of his life detailed in this story. CBS News told Hatewatch he never worked for them. At the time Posobiec introduced himself to the public on Twitter as "fmr CBS News," he promoted now-infamous disinformation campaigns such as "Pizzagate." He built up a larger audience during this time, gaining over 9,000 followers per month from September 2016 to March 2017.

Posobiec used Twitter to target Jewish journalists with antisemitic hate. His targets included CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, whose Polish family survived the Holocaust during World War II. Posobiec also targeted a group of journalists reporting on a press conference hosted by Peter Thiel. Three Jewish rights groups – the Anti-Defamation League, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Bend the Arc: Jewish Action – described Posobiec's behavior as antisemitic or condemned OANN's relationship to him after Hatewatch reached out for comment on this investigation. The full statements of those groups as well as additional evidence of Posobiec's antisemitic remarks can be found here.

Wikipedia cite:

{{cite news | first = Michael Edison | last = Hayden | title = Jack Posobiec's Rise Tied to White Supremacist Movement | url = https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2020/07/08/jack-posobiecs-rise-tied-white-supremacist-movement | work = Southern Poverty Law Center | date = July 9, 2020 | accessdate = July 10, 2020 }}