The Gateway Pundit

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Jones with Jim and Joe Hoft on a 2020 video call

The Gateway Pundit is a far-right fake news website founded by former corporate executive (and dumbest man on the Internet^[2]) Jim Hoft, who is also a principal writer,^[3] along with his twin brother Joe.^[4] Often cited by such "scholars" as Matt Drudge, it holds a strong pro-Trump^[5] stance, is anti-liberal, and has occasional flirtation with outright white supremacists. It is a fairly popular blog, allegedly getting 4 to 5 million views each month, once again proving that being popular doesn't necessarily make you right.

Disinformation[edit]

The Gateway Pundit tends to care primarily about riling up its right-wing base over actually doing any journalism, such as fact checking. As such, they have published a number of false stories. These include such claims as Hillary Clinton taking Algeria off the terror watch list, with their "proof" being a politifact story that debunks the claim.^[6]

The site often misidentifies perpetrators of attacks, claiming they are liberal.^{[note 1]} The site has spread false information about the 2017 Las Vegas shooting (misidentifying the perpetrator) and the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting (stating that the survivors were crisis actors);^[3] in both events, Gateway Pundit has claimed, without evidence, that the perpetrators were Democrats.^[3] The site also falsely claimed that the Jacksonville landing shooter was a redditor who posts anti-trump messages, despite the shooter being dead and the redditor being alive.^[7]

The Gateway Pundit actually received White House press credentials in 2017 from the Trump administration, but the tipping point of their vileness may have been reached when they were disinvited from a panel at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference due to their "reportage" over the Stoneman Douglas shooting by Wintrich.^[3]

On February 14, 2018, Hoft, Gavin McInnes, Paul Nehlen, and several other people and entities were sued for defamation for falsely naming the driver who killed Heather Heyer at the 2017 Unite the Right rally.^[3][8] The case against The Pundit was settled for a few thousand dollars,^[9] while another defendant, GotNews.com, shuttered without explanation.^[10]

The Gateway Pundit was one of the many far-right media outlets who pushed baseless fraud claims after the 2020 United States presidential election. On February 7, 2021, this got Jim Hoft's @gatewaypundit Twitter account suspended.^[11][12] In May 2021, Hoft claimed that the January 6 insurrection was "staged" by anti-Trump operatives, and everything that the FBI and media say about the event are lies.^[1] The Gateway Pundit was so sure that no one could convince them otherwise about their claim about one particular false allegation that they made (what they call "drop and roll"), that they dangled $10,000 to anyone who wanted to try to fight their wilful ignorance.^[13][14]

Gateway Pundit and the Hoft twins have been named in a defamation lawsuit by two minor election officials who claim that the website made false accusations against them that resulted in a torrent of threats and harassment resulting in them being unable to live normal lives.^[4]

In September 2021, Google had enough of the Gateway Pundit's COVID, COVID vaccines, and 2020 election disinformation and kickbanned them from its AdSense advertising program, effectively cutting off the site's primary source of revenue.^[15][16]

Positions[edit]

• Godwin's law invoked on Obama and the Daily Mail cited as a credible source.^[17][18]
• Godwin's law also invoked on environmentalists, because trying to do something about global warming is a "Fascistic/Statist (ie, Progressive) power grab".^[19] The site in general is consistent on its global warming denialism.^[20][21]
• Pushing Birtherism, mainly through just asking questions combined with appeal to authority,^[22][23] but sometimes they're more direct about it.^[24][25] Obama may also be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.^[26]
• Pushing the November 4th Antifa Civil War conspiracy theory.^[27]
• Red-baiting, because they don't realize the Cold War is over.^[28]
• Gun nuttery, such as claiming that universal background checks will lead to Stalin-like tyranny.^[29]
• Pandering to homophobes.^[30][31] Ironically, Hoft came out as gay after the 2016 Pulse Nightclub massacre in Orlando, Florida.^[32]
• Citing actual white supremacists, such as the European Union Times^[33], Diversity is Crap^[34], and the Council of Conservative Citizens^[35]

Comments section[edit]

The top rated comments give us a good idea of who the site attracts.

He is NOT BLACK he is an SUNI MUSLIM he looks black but his culture is Islamist! He speaks perfect araibec and can recite the call for prayer! Do you know a black man that can do that?????? Most black American men are Christians. He hates Christians, and he has a fake marriage! Its all fake!! First thing he did was delete all the words of GOD and take out any words of Islamists and change all the miranda rights--this isnt an American this is a traitor! He is not an American! They trained him he is an imposter! He didnt care about the 30 Navy seal tean six or Bengazi!!! He used the black people to get their vote! He is an actor!! (181 upvotes, 0 downvotes)

Do you actually think OUR, *cough*, congress IS GOING to impeach the first black POS marxist muslim potus? *sigh* he NEVER should have been elected in the first place. (220 upvotes, 2 downvotes) (Basically, 220 people don't understand that nearly all Marxists are atheists)

Muslim in NOT a race of people, it's a Satanic cult! (77 upvotes, 1 downvote)

They are using the gays to destroy Christianity, then the Muslims are going to kill all the gays, that's how they are going to take over the world. (42 upvotes, 0 downvotes)^[36]

That’s right, anything filed against a lib has GOTTA be bogus! Anything thrown up against the wall that accuses Trump of something??? Now THAT’S true! (50 upvotes, 0 downvotes)^[37]

2020 election denialism and Capitol riot[edit]

Hoft was one of the invited speakers at the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot warmup rally.^[38]

Following Trump's loss of the 2020 election, The Gateway Pundit promoted the lie that Trump had won the election. For their efforts, they were sued by Dominion Voting Systems and Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea "Shaye" Moss. The Pundit declared bankruptcy in 2024 due to the lawsuits in a move reminiscent of Alex Jones trying to avoid paying damages to the families of the Sandy Hook massacre.^[39][40] The bankruptcy filing was dismissed by a judge, ruling that it was not filed in good faith.^[41]

It took a defamation lawsuit by two election workers against Gateway Pundit for the site to finally admit that there was no widespread voter fraud in 2020.^[42] Hoft stated in 2024 on the Gateway Pundit website:

See also[edit]

• Jonanism: What The Gateway Pundit does.
• Moonbattery.com
• Fake News
• Jacob Wohl — a former employee
• WorldNetDaily

External links[edit]

• Jim Hoft: Dumbest Man on the Internet? from Media Matters

References[edit]

Notes[edit]