Jim Hoft, founder of the conspiracy theory website Gateway Pundit, announced that the company is declaring bankruptcy while battling ongoing defamation lawsuits. The parent company, TGP Communications, is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections in the Southern District of Florida due to what Hoft describes as “progressive liberal lawfare attacks against our media outlet.”
The site, known for publishing falsehoods and conspiracy theories, is facing a notable lawsuit from Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. They sued Gateway Pundit, Hoft, his twin brother, and website contributor Joe Hoft for defamation and emotional distress, alleging that the site falsely claimed they manipulated the vote count in favor of Joe Biden.
The Hofts have defended their coverage, claiming they genuinely believed the election was stolen and did not knowingly defame Freeman and Moss. Their counterclaim was dismissed, and Freeman and Moss’s suit is currently awaiting trial.
The Trump campaign played a significant role in spreading misinformation about Freeman and Moss. They also sued Rudy Giuliani for his role in disseminating lies about their work. A jury awarded Freeman and Moss $148 million in damages in that defamation suit last year. Giuliani, too, filed for bankruptcy.
Gateway Pundit is also named in a defamation suit brought by a former employee of Dominion, the voting machine company vilified by Trump and his allies. The case, brought by Eric Coomer, can proceed, according to a recent ruling by a Colorado appeals court panel. Despite its often-untethered coverage, Gateway Pundit has played an outsize role in the conservative mediasphere, though its traffic peaked in 2020.
Do you appreciate our work? Please consider one of the following ways to sustain us.
or
Follow Media Bias Fact Check:
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/mediabiasfactcheck.bsky.social
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@mediabiasfactcheck
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MBFC_News
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mediabiasfactcheck
That might be the best news I’ve seen in a week.
“The Hofts have defended their coverage, claiming they genuinely believed the election was stolen and did not knowingly defame Freeman and Moss. Their counterclaim was dismissed…”
As well it should be. IGNORANCE is no excuse for an information source. That’s why journalists do research. That’s why they fact-check. That’s why they don’t simply “take someone’s word.” If the Hofts sincerely believed the 2020 presidential election was stolen, they have tacitly admitted to being incompetent “news” people, at best.
I find it surprising that a media bias site would allow so much bias in their analysis and headlines about Gateway Pundit’s bankruptcy due to multiple lawsuits. These lawsuits arise from their 2020 election coverage, where I believe they will ultimately succeed. People often criticize TGP, but the criticism is usually just as biased and often comes from a disingenuous left-leaning perspective. It’s one thing to label them as right-leaning, but to attack their credibility like you do makes your site unreliable. I’ve reviewed this website’s lists, and they are wildly inconsistent. For instance, labeling both the DNC and GOP websites as questionable seems strange. I do my best to prevent your site’s API from being used by AI bots and others because it is outdated, exaggerated, and highly biased.