In a stunning admission on Twitter, James Fallows of the Atlantic conceded he is a journalistic fraud. Neither he nor The Atlantic fact-check articles, instead choosing to copy-and-past press releases. Fallows remains steadfast in his refusal to apologize or correct the record, as he is drunk with power. James Fallows and The Atlantic may soon learn that journalistic fraud has professional and legal consequences.
On October 28th, Fallows wrote an article at The Atlantic claiming that white nationalism was a huge trend on Twitter. Fallows cited a report from a scam company called “Demographics Pro.” According to Demographics Pro, my Twitter account was a “white nationalist Twitter account.”
A social-media analytics firm called Demographics Pro has released an analysis of 10,000 Trump supporters who are active on Twitter, and 10,000 Hillary Clinton supporters. It then matched those accounts with a list of 10 active, major white-nationalist Twitter accounts. (The company describes the way in which it chose and classified such sites here.)
White nationalists are an insular group, and they do not include me, nor do I include myself with them. When I informed Fallows of his mistake, I expected some integrity from him. Instead he told me to go away, saying, “I quoted a survey and explained its methodology. Your beef is with Demographics Pro.”
https://twitter.com/JamesFallows/status/792537309157687296
James Fallows admit he does not fact-check his articles or even take personal responsibility for them. Is this standard policy at The Atlantic?
Fallows admission astounded people, who expected once-respected journalists to do some actual fact-checking rather than serve as mouth pieces for special interest organizations.
https://twitter.com/StephenGrosch/status/792546831175520258
Are you claiming the study isn't so fundamentally flawed as to entirely falsify your conclusions from it?
— (((tedfrank))) (@tedfrank) October 30, 2016
Not only did Fallows fail to fact-check the report before citing it, he has refused to retract his remarks about me.
James Fallows is a fraud. The Atlantic is a fraud.
Failing to do an easy fact check or asking subject of a story for a comment on story like that smells like reckless disregard for truth.
— Marc J. Randazza 🇺🇸 🇮🇹 🇧🇷 (@marcorandazza) October 30, 2016
Fallows has decided he wants to lie about me. Lacking any decency or integrity, he will not retract his lies about me.
Mr. Fallows has clearly not read MAGA Mindset.
I hate bullies. Fallows is used to lying to the public and lying about those without the resources needed to fight back. He is used to getting away with fraud. He won’t get away with this.