Jul 16, 2022 • 1HR 16M

Episode 123: A "Fake" Story Turns Out To Be Real And A "Real" Story Turns Out To Be (Mostly) Fake

Plus: Katie's deepest, most personal secret, revealed at last

Jul 16, 2022

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Journalists Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal scour the internet for its craziest, silliest, most sociopathic content, part of an obsessive and ill-conceived attempt to extract kernels of meaning and humanity from a landscape of endless raging dumpster fires.

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Katie’s true reason for dressing up as a horse all those years ago is finally revealed. An old friend of the pod returns for his revenge. A heart-wrenching story involving a 10-year-old rape victim seeking an abortion turns out to be fake, but then turns out to be real anyway. Jesse discusses a viral internet rumor involving trans kids in Leon County, Florida schools and explains how indignant he is he had to do one of his least favorite things — “work” — in order to debunk it.

Links:

Intro

Katie has a crush on Jesse confirmed:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BlockedAndReported/comments/vyb507/katie_has_a_crush_on_jesse/

Katie’s initial attempt to seduce Jesse, c. 2010:

Prof. Stuart Reges sues University of Washington with FIRE’s backing:

https://www.thefire.org/lawsuit-professor-sues-university-of-washington-after-admins-punish-him-for-inappropriate-opinion/

Last episode on Reges’ case (skip to 3:48):

Blocked and Reported

Episode 97: Alberto Gullaba Jr. Thought He Might Be Headed For Literary Stardom — Then His Agent Found Out His Race

Listen now (99 min) | After Katie provides a brief but withering review of ‘America,’ she tells Jesse about the latest hijinks of everyone’s favorite contrarian University of Washington computer science teacher, which lik…

a year ago · 80 likes · Blocked and Reported

The Victim That Was(n’t?)

Indiana Star story about the 10-year-old:

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/health/2022/07/01/indiana-abortion-law-roe-v-wade-overturned-travel/7779936001/

Indiana’s new abortion law:

https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-2919.192

Megan Fox (no, not that one) expresses skepticism, does some digging:

Megan Fox @MeganFoxWriter

The story about a 10 yr old pregnant girl who had to go from Ohio to IN for an abortion gives me serious pause for a number of reasons. There are many red flags.🚩I'm going to detail them here.

The WSJ is incredulous:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/an-abortion-story-too-good-to-confirm-joe-biden-ten-year-old-girl-indiana-ohio-caitlin-bernard-11657648618

The Washington Post’s semi-skeptical column (paywalled, but only on desktop for some reason):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/09/one-source-story-about-10-year-old-an-abortion-goes-viral/

Ladies and gentlemen, we got him:

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2022/07/13/columbus-man-charged-rape-10-year-old-led-abortion-in-indiana/10046625002/

Rebecca Fishbein uses this to dunk on her political outgroup:

Rebecca Fishbein @bfishbfish

gotta say if i dragged a 10 year old rape victim through the mud because i did a sloppy fact-check column and then doubled down on it online i'd probably leave journalism

Mike Daisy, who QRT’d this tweet, was himself caught fabricating a story:

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/460/retraction

Fox grabs the political football, scores some political points for the right:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ohio-10-year-olds-alleged-rapist-guatemalan-illegal-immigrant-ice-source

Bethany Bruner was the only one in the courtroom as the perp was arraigned:

Bethany Bruner @bethany_bruner

I was the ONLY reporter in the courtroom this morning as the man accused of raping a 10-year-old girl, impregnating her, leading to an abortion in Indiana, was arraigned. This confirms that the case exists.

dispatch.comArrest made in rape of Ohio girl that led to Indiana abortion drawing international attentionThe man was arraigned in Ohio. The case has led to national attention in the abortion debate following the Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade.

Asheville Watchdog:

https://avlwatchdog.org/

Leon County:

Jesse’s story:

Singal-Minded

An Attempt To Accurately Explain The Viral Controversy Over The Leon County, Florida School System’s Policy On Trans Kids

This isn’t a particularly sexy or easy-to-summarize story, but it was time-consuming and, I think, will help shed some light on a massively misunderstood controversy. While I’m publishing this for everyone, I was only able to spend the time on it that I did because of my paying subscribers. If you find this sort of work useful, please consider becoming …

8 months ago · 5 likes · 1 comment · Jesse Singal

A screenshot of the Tweet that started all this (deleted):

The Tallahassee Democrat story that it linked to:

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/education/2022/06/29/leon-county-school-board-approves-lgbtq-guide-dont-say-gay-moms-for-liberty-parental-rights/7765205001/

Kaitlyn Greenridge, features director of Harper’s Bazaar, on how this may represent an irreversible step towards fascism:

Leon County School District’s LGBTQ Inclusive guide with amendments — old version before the final amendments that was linked to in the Democrat piece:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22074439-the-leon-county-school-districts-lgbtq-inclusive-guide-with-amendments

Chase Anderson, child and adolescent psychiatrist, on this policy (deleted):

NBC repeats the claim from Twitter:

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/floridas-dont-say-gay-law-takes-effect-schools-roll-lgbtq-restrictions-rcna36143

Vanity Fair then repeats the claim from NBC from Twitter:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/07/ron-desantis-florida-dont-say-gay-goes-into-effect

Turns out the guide was actually written by a PFLAG activist:

https://www.wtxl.com/news/local-news/leon-county-schools-board-to-finalize-lgbtq-guidance

In Leon County, even the Republicans are liberal:

https://tallahasseereports.com/2017/05/03/school-board-member-alva-striplin-becomes-a-democrat/

The lawsuit that got this policy rewritten:

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2021/11/16/leon-county-schools-sued-over-lgbtq-guide-transgender-lgbtq-guide/6342695001/

Leon County’s reaction to the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill:

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2022/03/29/leon-county-schools-lawsuit-spurred-florida-desantis-dont-say-gay-bill/7202254001/

Previously, Leon County school board got their salaries withheld by the state gov’t over their mask policy:

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2021/10/15/leon-county-school-board-loses-salaries-over-mask-policy/8473965002/

The journalist fact-checking this story:

https://www.tallahassee.com/staff/7775150002/ana-goi-lessan/

Image: DAYTON, OHIO, UNITED STATES - 2022/05/14: Protesters hold placards expressing their opinion at a pro abortion rights rally. People from many different cities gathered to support and rally for abortion rights. In light of the Supreme Court decision that could overturn Roe v. Wade that leaked roughly two weeks ago, hundreds of people in Dayton, spoke and marched for abortion access. (Photo by Whitney Saleski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)