A day after a competitive video gamer shot and killed two people, wounding 10 others, at a Madden video game tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, a group of far-right news outlets announced that they had found the Reddit account used by the shooter, who they said used the pseudonym "Ravenchamps."
But the groups were wrong.
"Ravenchamps" did not belong to the shooter, who the police say was a Baltimore resident named David Katz and who killed himself in the shooting. And the announcement caused considerable trouble for the real person who owned the account.
The fringe sites Infowars and Gateway Pundit, plus far-right commentator Mike Cernovich and Daily Caller contributor Ian Miles Cheong, claimed that "Ravenchamps" — similar to Katz's frequent video game username "Ravens2012champs" — was operated by the alleged shooter before his death. They pointed to the account's rhetoric that repeatedly slammed the president, along with other political figures, pointing out a comment where Ravenchamps called users "Trumptards."
This is not the first time Gateway Pundit has misidentified someone who committed an attack or mass shooting. The site said the Charlottesville car attack was conducted by an "anti-Trump protester" who in reality was hundreds of miles away at the time of the attack. The site also named the wrong person in the Las Vegas mass shooting, and spun an elaborate conspiracy based on an anonymous Twitter post which identified the wrong person in a mass shooting at the airport in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, in January 2017.
from NBC News BEN COLLINS
Aug 28th 2018 6:50PM
A retraction?
Shortly after Pavel started tweeting, Gateway Pundit appended two question marks to the headline of their story tying him to the shooting, which now reads: "Jacksonville Shooter Was Member of Anti-Trump 'Resistance'?? - Murdered 3 People (UPDATE).
That is the face of fake news!
But the groups were wrong.
"Ravenchamps" did not belong to the shooter, who the police say was a Baltimore resident named David Katz and who killed himself in the shooting. And the announcement caused considerable trouble for the real person who owned the account.
The fringe sites Infowars and Gateway Pundit, plus far-right commentator Mike Cernovich and Daily Caller contributor Ian Miles Cheong, claimed that "Ravenchamps" — similar to Katz's frequent video game username "Ravens2012champs" — was operated by the alleged shooter before his death. They pointed to the account's rhetoric that repeatedly slammed the president, along with other political figures, pointing out a comment where Ravenchamps called users "Trumptards."
This is not the first time Gateway Pundit has misidentified someone who committed an attack or mass shooting. The site said the Charlottesville car attack was conducted by an "anti-Trump protester" who in reality was hundreds of miles away at the time of the attack. The site also named the wrong person in the Las Vegas mass shooting, and spun an elaborate conspiracy based on an anonymous Twitter post which identified the wrong person in a mass shooting at the airport in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, in January 2017.
from NBC News BEN COLLINS
Aug 28th 2018 6:50PM
A retraction?
Shortly after Pavel started tweeting, Gateway Pundit appended two question marks to the headline of their story tying him to the shooting, which now reads: "Jacksonville Shooter Was Member of Anti-Trump 'Resistance'?? - Murdered 3 People (UPDATE).
That is the face of fake news!
Last edited:
