As a reporter, I am constantly sending inquiries to government agencies. So it wasn’t that unusual when, back in October, I emailed the Pentagon a list of super personal questions about Eric Geressy, a top adviser to Pete Hegseth, including whether Geressy had a Goodreads account that displayed books about "Asian wife sharing."
What was new was the email I got the next day from Jack Posobiec, a far-right activist and new member of the Pentagon press corps. Posobiec asked me to comment on several false claims, including whether I have a “creepy fetish for Asian women,” with the same deadline I had given the Pentagon. That felt like a message: Publish your article and get smeared.
Posobiec isn’t credible. He’s known for promoting the Pizzagate conspiracy theory. But he has 3 million X followers and a demonstrated willingness to slander.
This was a problem for me, and for Mother Jones. Here was an attempt to strong-arm us into silence. It was news. But it also complicated an already tricky story. If we delayed the piece or didn’t run it, we risked leaving the impression that we’d been intimidated.
So we did what reporters should in a journalism dilemma: more journalism. You can read here about what I did to nail down the story.
But here’s the takeaway: That fake reporter’s threats offered a reminder of how real reporters should act, and why we stand up to this administration’s attacks.
—Dan Friedman
