True Pundit

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: WP:CITEKILL. Perhaps needs an ext links section expanded or perhaps a further reading section. Please help improve this article if you can. (December 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

True Pundit is a far-right^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]} fake news website known for publishing conspiracy theories.^{[1][2][4][8][9][10][11][12][13]} According to The Atlantic, True Pundit had "a well-known modus operandi, perfected during the 2016 U.S. election: running baseless stories and then asking leading questions".^[14]

True Pundit was "fluent in the paranoid language of 2016 social media" and often credited false stories about the FBI and Hillary Clinton to anonymous sources and claimed the mainstream media was covering it up. The website helped spread thePlandemic conspiracy theory. It was often promoted by partisan and conspiracy websites and prominent pro-Trump figures, including Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr.^{[1][10][11][15][16]}

True Pundit earned revenue by selling merchandise and advertising with Revcontent, a service that monetized fake news sites, and briefly worked with the ad firm Intermarkets.^[1][17]

In October 2016 True Pundit was the source of the claim that Hillary Clinton asked, "Can’t we just drone this guy?" about Julian Assange. The conspiracy theory was amplified by WikiLeaks, InfoWars, RT, Heat Street and Fox News. WikiLeaks sent a private message to Donald Trump Jr. asking him to "comment on/push" the story. Trump Jr. replied that he "already did that".^{[1][15][18][19]}

The website also published stories about Hillary Clinton possibly wearing an earpiece at a debate, using hand signals with debate moderators, and being drunk before a campaign rally.^[1][11][20]

In 2016 and 2017 True Pundit promoted theories that mass shootings in Las Vegas and at the Orlando Pulse nightclub involved FBI cover-ups and a conspiracy theory related to Trump Tower wiretapping allegations.^[1] Years after True Pundit said FBI sources fingered the Pulse shooter as an FBI asset, Omar Mateen's family connections to the FBI was revealed. ^[21]

In February 2018 True Pundit promoted conspiracy theories about the Parkland high school shooting.^[22][23][24] In August 2018 True Pundit was the first to imply a link between a Pizzagate conspiracy theorist's death and the Clinton family.^[10]

In 2020, True Pundit played a key role in boosting the Plandemic conspiracy theory.^[16]

The website for True Pundit was registered in March 2016 and launched that June. True Pundit was created by Michael D. Moore using the pseudonym Thomas Paine and managed by True Pundit Media LLC.^[1][11]

In 2017 Moore sarcastically said True Pundit was "flattered to be accused of participating in disinformation campaigns" for Russia and implied that mainstream media do the same for other governments.^[25] “We are flattered to be accused of participating in disinformation campaigns for government because as a start-up that's the exact time-tested model we have been emulating from the New York Times, Washington Post and other mainstream media outlets," Paine said. ^[26] The allegations were later proven false when reporters admitted the claims were fabricated. Left-wing critics of True Pundit, including the Washington Post, were forced to print ^[27]numerous retractions. Business Insider admitted targets like True Pundit were manufactured and the original allegations were false.^[28]

Michael D. Moore had a background in journalism, previously a contractor with FBI, when he created True Pundit in 2016 using the pseudonym, Thomas Paine. Moore's autobiography as Thomas Paine says he won the Gerald Loeb Award, and claimed he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting twice and a George Polk Political Reporting award once.

In 1996, Moore won the coveted Gerald Loeb Award for its series "Formula for Disaster: The Lodi Explosion" by Michael Moore, Bruce Locklin and Debra Lynn Vial. The series was the catalyst for the creation of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.

In 1996 Moore was co-winner of a Gerald Loeb Award for reporting about TWA Flight 800. Moore said that in the late 1990s he left journalism to work in "intelligence" and started the company "Dig Dirt" with the tagline "investigative intelligence". When Moore's newspaper learned about Dig Dirt, they opened an internal investigation. The paper's editor said it "very clearly created the appearance and potential for a conflict of interest" but Moore was cleared of wrongdoing, but resigned from the newspaper.^[1][29][30]