Yesterday, Richard Luthmann and I traveled back in time to when Megan Fox became a conservative media story by falsely claiming that a rape didn’t happen.
We also explored how that story compared to her role in the Hales saga.
The set up
On June 24, 2022, the US Supreme Court released the Dobbs decision reversing Roe V Wade and returning the abortion issue to each state.
The landmark decision sent shockwaves throughout the world, including in Ohio.
Approximately three years prior, the Ohio legislature passed a law that banned abortions as soon as the fetus had a heartbeat, at approximately six weeks.
That’s referred to as a “trigger law” or it would be triggered if Roe V Wade was overturned.
On July 1, 2022, an abortion doctor named Dr. Caitlin Bernard did an interview with the Indianapolis Star in which she talked about a ten-year-old patient who was forced to leave Ohio and travel to Indiana to have an abortion after the ten-year-old was raped.
That happened, Dr. Bernard told the Indianapolis Star, because of Ohio’s then new heartbeat law.
The story went viral, with liberals using it as an example of the overreach of restrictive anti-abortion laws in the wake of the Dobbs decision.
Megan doubts the story
At PJ Media, journalist Megan Fox saw something unique. She poured cold water on the veracity of the story. She noted that Dr. Bernard was an abortion activist, no documentation existed of this rape, and no official agency confirmed the story.
She took to Twitter and then to PJ Media to question the story’s validity.
Kessler {Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post} didn’t bother to name those “other news organizations,” which were literally me, myself, and I. After my tweet showing my research into this story that didn’t add up went viral, the only news about it linked to my research. Kessler didn’t bother to give me any credit for that. It probably hurt too much to admit that a conservative news outlet and an independent journalist smoked the Washington Post.
The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin (who, unbelievably, used to work here) wrote a hysterical opinion piece on the “forced births” that furthered its spread. Kessler didn’t bother to fact-check the story at that time. He let Rubin’s piece run without question as she relied on the thin tale to spread her pro-abortion propaganda.
For about a week and a half, Megan Fox became a conservative media star, including being praised by Ann Coulter and an appearance with Jesse Waters. No one could confirm the story, so her doubts grew louder.
Megan’s narrative blows up
On July 12, 2022, Gerson Fuentes was arrested for raping the ten-year-old- at which point Megan seamlessly pivoted and claimed credit for his arrest.
Her assertion was as baseless as her original doubts about the rape. The victim’s mother called social services on June 22, 2022, and that triggered a police investigation. All Megan contributed was a false narrative.
In another time, such a monumental mistake could cost a journalist their career, but not now. PJ Media quickly ran to her defense. Her editor, Paula Bolyard, wrote an editorial which stated in part.
On Tuesday night we learned that Gerson Fuentes, an illegal alien from Guatemala living in Columbus, Ohio, confessed to raping a young girl who was just nine years old at the time. A little girl who should be playing with Barbies and My Little Ponies and jumping rope on the playground.
When you report on a story like this, you go into it hoping it’s not true. It’s hard to process the utter depravity of someone who would rape a child. It’s our job to read the police reports and the detailed descriptions of the crimes when we investigate these stories, but it’s never easy. You get a sick feeling in your stomach that takes a long time to go away.
In the case of the 10-year-old rape victim, the story was first reported by the Indianapolis Star, which apparently made no attempt to verify whether it was true—or at least refused to back up the story with evidence, leading even the Washington Post’s fact-checker, Glenn Kessler, to call out the newspaper for its thinly sourced reporting. In fact, the story relied on the word of Caitlin Bernard, an abortion doctor/activist in Indiana. She claimed that a 10-year-old had to cross state lines in order to obtain an abortion because Ohio law would not permit it. In fact, Ohio’s heartbeat law has a stipulation that allows doctors to perform an abortion if he or she deems it a “medical emergency.” No court appearance is required, and no judge must be consulted—the doctor has the authority to make that call on his own.
From there, she received support from others in the conservative sphere, including Glenn Beck who claimed she deserved a Pulitzer.
Before I started asking if this story was real or not — because of the poorly sourced original reporting and the political ramifications of its viral nature — no one in the Repeater Media was investigating who raped a 10-year-old child. All they did was repeat the vague reporting from the Indianapolis Star. Their only focus was on whether or not the child could get an abortion in Ohio and which Republican they could damage with awkward soundbites for the evening news. And it turned out that the original reporting was fake news because Ohio law would have allowed her to have the procedure under its emergency exception, contrary to the Indianapolis Star‘s claims.
Without the huge media attention my questions raised and the media frenzy that ensued to corroborate this claim, we still might not know that an illegal alien from Guatemala raped and impregnated a child. He may not have even been arrested (or at least not this soon).
Fox and PJ Media then covered Fuentes criminal trial, focusing on the social services investigation and Fuentes being an illegal alien.
Rather than hurting her career, this false story raised her profile. She gained tens of thousands of new twitter followers and other fans. After Fuentes was arrested, the conservative media like Beck protected her, made excuses for her, and gave their fans reasons to continue to look at her work.
The Hales affair
It seems she took the wrong lesson from this affair into the Jeremy Hales affair.
For approximately two years, she has falsely claimed that Jeremy Hales files lawsuits against anyone- in particular his neighbors John Cook and Michelle Preston- because he wants to hold bad folks accountable,
In fact, he files frivolous lawsuits for YouTube content.
When each of these lawsuits is dismissed, she makes up excuses and moves on to another part of the evolving story line.
False MSBP false rape
This dynamic is illustrated when she falsely claimed that Michelle Preston has Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP) and was making up a serious and rare metabolic disorder in her adopted daughter.
She made this claim based on one anonymous source, ironically exactly what she criticized in the Ohio rape case. I proved this claim was false when I got a letter from Michelle’s daughter’s doctor.
This false claim is what first put Megan on Hales YouTube show, where he has nearly 750,000 subscribers. Below is the pertinent portion of that appearance.
When I released the letter, the Hales crew defended and protected her- much like the conservative media previously did- and falsely stated the letter was fake.
Her star rose in the Halesverse and with it, so did her YouTube channel. Once again, being right wasn’t as important as being provocative and noticed by the right people.
Conclusion
Megan didn’t respond to an email for comment. Her current frequent YouTube partner is Matthew Lewis AKA That Umbrella Guy, and he provided a rambling and incoherent response worthy of the famous Billy Madison scene.
Awww, Mikey writes Daddy TUG again, begging for attention
Gotta get your weekly TUG PLUG article - and for 2022?
You must be extra spicy BUTTHURT with Megan today!
Since we’re strolling down memory lane, did you accept $40,000 to “destroy others” in an ongoing litigation, like Leslie Ferderigos stated live?
She made that clear, too.
It wasn’t reporting.
It was to “DESTROY others” - and she was his lawyer, so maybe she’d know.
And did you help get that dude locked up too, for leaking docs?
My my my.
What other backroom deals have you had/do you have going on to try and ruin others?
Lol, might wanna get to penning that article about how you sent an email - and someone opened another one!!
Fucking clown.
-------
READ MUH SUBSTAK!
SOMEONE HAS TO! RIGHT? RIGHT?
O GOD, SOMEONE CLICKED! I WAS RIGHT!
Check out the interview I did with Malinda Sherwyn, who once respected Megan, about this false allegation of MSBP against Michelle Preston.
Post-script
Check out the fundraiser to help me create more articles on the Hales case. Find articles one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty- nine, thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three, and thirty-four.
