{"id":69670,"date":"2017-03-25T09:31:46","date_gmt":"2017-03-25T13:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=69670"},"modified":"2017-03-30T08:14:35","modified_gmt":"2017-03-30T12:14:35","slug":"huge-hit-piece-by-the-daily-beast-on-pizzagate-investigative-journalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=69670","title":{"rendered":"Major Hit Piece by The Daily Beast on Pizzagate<\/i> Investigative Journalist — MSM Stifles Pedogate<\/b> Truth With a Vengeance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

PIE IN THE FACE<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

The Self-Proclaimed \u2018Publicity Whore\u2019 and Fired Jezebel Intern Running Point on Pizzagate<\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

David Seaman has racked up hundreds of thousands of views from earnest believers in the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy. But do his fans know about his past books that claim \u2018controversy, scandal-mongering, and social networking can turn your message into a viral sensation\u2019?<\/h3>\n
\n
\n

JENNINGS BROWN
\nThe Daily Beast<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

On March 25, a group of protesters will gather at Lafayette Square in front of the White House and demand an investigation into a nonexistent global satanic child-sex-trafficking operation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

This will be the frontline of Pizzagate, or Pedogate, as many conspiracy theorists are trying to rebrand it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Last week, the march got its big publicity break: a retweet from Michael Flynn Jr.<\/a>, son of Trump\u2019s former national security adviser, endorsing Pizzagate investigators\u2019 de facto ringleader, David Seaman.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Flynn Jr. retweeted an announcement from Seaman, the most prominent face of Pizzagate and the highest-profile personality expected to speak at this weekend\u2019s protest. \u201cDavid has definitely been instrumental in spreading awareness and I\u2019m very grateful for that,\u201d Pizzagate march organizer Neil Wolfe said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But as Seaman has built a substantial audience\u2014nearly 70,000 Twitter followers and more than 155,000 YouTube subscribers\u2014some other less prominent Pizzagaters have started to dig<\/a> into Seaman\u2019s past<\/a> to prove that he\u2019s not<\/a> the man he purports to be.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Seaman spent much of the last decade as a self-promotion guru, selling secrets on how to \u201cattract buzz\u201d and writing a how-to book on becoming \u201ca publicity whore,\u201d after turbulent stints as an intern at Jezebel\u00a0and contributor at\u00a0The Huffington Post were abruptly cut short.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

He even staged a \u201cFree Paris Hilton\u201d protest to build his personal brand, and once proclaimed he \u201cwould protest gravity if I thought it was going to give me buzz.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

So how did a self-professed \u201cbuzz expert\u201d become the face of Pizzagate? And how did so few people know about his past?<\/p>\n

http:\/\/twitter.com\/mflynnJR\/status\/839877413660147713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Farticles%2F2017%2F03%2F24%2Fthe-self-proclaimed-publicity-whore-and-fired-jezebel-intern-running-point-on-pizzagate.html<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Seaman attended New York University and graduated from Hunter College with an English degree. Shortly after he graduated, he published his second book, Dirty Little Secrets of Buzz: How to Attract Massive Attention to Your Business, Your Product, or Yourself<\/i><\/a>. The book, originally titled How to Be a Publicity Whore<\/i><\/a>, promises to teach readers \u201chow controversy, scandal-mongering, and social networking<\/a> can turn your message into a viral sensation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The 2008 book uses examples from popular \u201cpublicity whores\u201d like Howard Stern, Tila Tequila, Ann Coulter, Bill Maher, and even Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cDonald Trump is a human brand that fires on all cylinders,\u201d Seaman wrote. \u201cTrump is no longer chiefly a real-estate mogul or even a businessman: I would argue he\u2019s a buzz genius, more interested in taking up real estate in your mind than in your city.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

While researching for the book, Seaman staged a Free Paris Hilton protest<\/a> in the SoHo neighborhood of New York in May 2007. The stunt attracted more reporters than protesters (all three of them) and Seaman was interviewed about the protest by Nancy Grace on CNN<\/a>. Tabloids and local New York publications covered the event, and Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O\u2019Brien riffed on it during their late-night shows.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

The incident also captured the attention of Gawker<\/a>, where Seaman was working as a Jezebel intern at the time. Jezebel Editor Moe Tkacik fired Seaman and explained the decision in a post \u201cSelf-Promotion Guru David Seaman Got Our Memo, Shat All Over It<\/a>.\u201d Weeks later, Tkacik wrote another post about meeting Seaman, who she nicknamed D-Splooge, to apologize for being so harsh, \u201cIn Which We Get Closure With Self-Promotion Whore David Seaman<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

When The Daily Beast reached out for comment from Tkacik on working with the man who would become a leader of Pizzagate, she initially responded: \u201cThat\u2019s insane. David Seaman. Holy shit.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Tkacik remembers watching the protest\u2014which was right outside the Gawker office\u2014and seeing photos of Seaman in coverage of the event. \u201cHis ideas were already very bad and self-promotional,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was very good at seeming sincere. I think he\u2019s an opportunist. I would certainly be interested to know how much money this is making him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Based on her experience with Seaman, she doesn\u2019t think he believes everything he\u2019s saying about Pizzagate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve known people who were like him in certain ways. But never anyone who was quite opportunistic enough to embrace something so ludicrous,\u201d she said. \u201cTo me, Pizzagate is the David Seaman of conspiracy theories.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Seaman bounced back from the internship loss and became a reporter at The Street<\/a>, a financial news site, where he developed a passion for finance, credit, and alternative currencies. He created a Yelp for credit cards, the now-defunct CreditCardOutlaw.com<\/a>, and started a podcast, The David Seaman Hour<\/em><\/a>. During that time he asked journalist and podcaster Cara Santa Maria<\/a> to be a guest on his show and, in turn, she invited him on her podcast, Talk Nerdy<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

When The Daily Beast first reached out to Santa Maria and informed her of Seaman\u2019s involvement with Pizzagate, her first response was, \u201cHoly shit. Are you serious?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She said she could not imagine Seaman getting mixed up with such an outlandish conspiracy theory. \u201cHe had a lot of knowledge about cryptocurrency and that seemed to be where his expertise, really where his world, kind of rested.\u201d Santa Maria said, \u201cIt blows my mind, because he seemed like a reasonable and well-informed individual and I didn\u2019t detect any conspiratorial thinking at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Santa Maria would know. Now she hosts a podcast called The Skeptics Guide to the Universe<\/em><\/a>, which often debunks conspiracy theories. Her professional assessment of Pizzagate: \u201cThat\u2019s insane. That\u2019s fucking insane. Is it legitimate? No, it\u2019s crazy. It makes me sad if he is actually involved with this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

As Seaman continued to report on anonymous internet banking, he also developed an interest in privacy and internet freedom. He was heavily opposed to internet bills like the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), and decided to fight by running against U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who was a big supporter of the bills. He tweeted about his intentions and Dell Cameron, who is now a Dallas-based journalist, offered to help register his campaign and provide counsel, since he had some campaign experience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Seaman wanted to run an internet-centric campaign, building a support coalition and raising funds entirely online. An archived version of the campaign site<\/a> shows that he earned at least 7.2 percent of his $100,000 goal. Many citizen researchers have recently tried to discredit Seaman by suggesting this congressional run was a scam<\/a>, but Cameron confirmed it was a legitimate campaign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhen I met him he was very gung-ho about it. He was seeking a platform to draw attention to some pretty terrible policies\u2014and to hold Wasserman-Schultz accountable for supporting them,\u201d Cameron said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The congressional run earned him his first of seven invitations to be a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience <\/em>podcast<\/a>. In most episodes, Rogan and Seaman stuck to topics like drug policy reform, surveillance, privacy, and bitcoin. But in an episode from June 2014<\/a> they discussed conspiracy theories:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rogan: This is a weird time because in the \u201960s and \u201970s, when all the Watergate shit was going down, what voice did a regular person have?<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Seaman: Right, you [would] just hope that <\/i>The <\/i>Washington Post published an op-ed you agree with. And that\u2019s pretty much the extent of your power.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rogan: When Kennedy was assassinated\u2014what happened? Who talked? Where, how did the people get their thoughts out?<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Seaman: Can you imagine if there was an Alex Jones back then, with the real platform\u2014how insane that would have been?<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This wasn\u2019t the first time Seaman had reflected on conspiracy theories. Eight months earlier, he published an ebook titled All Your Favorite Conspiracy Theories Are Wrong<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After his flirtation with politics, Seaman mostly focused on finance and cryptocurrency reporting, first as a contributor at Business Insider<\/a> then at The Huffington Post<\/a>. When Seaman tried to use his Huffington Post contributor status to publish a story about Hillary Clinton\u2019s health during the presidential campaign, and published a video from Paul Joseph Watson, The Huffington Post suspended his blogging account<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

That editorial decision turned the bitcoin reporter into \u201cBASED David Seaman,\u201d a martyr<\/a> within the Trump troll community. Seaman started making videos highly critical of Clinton and the Democratic National Committee. When the Podesta emails leaked, he had plenty of material to work with.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In a guest appearance on the Quite Frankly<\/em> podcast<\/a> this month, Seaman explained how The Huffington Post\u2019s suspension drove him to focus on Pizzagate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cAfterwards I was sitting in my apartment, had no one to write for, had people saying I was an idiot and a liar. So I figured, you know what, I\u2019ll get back at this bitch,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ll go through her emails. Because, of course, WikiLeaks had released the Hillary Clinton emails, and so with a beer and some spare time I just started going through them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He said he \u201cdidn\u2019t go off the deep end\u201d at first. But when Reddit and 4chan researchers started reading through Podesta\u2019s leaked emails and incorrectly determined that words like \u201cpizza,\u201d \u201cpasta,\u201d and \u201chot dog\u201d<\/a> were actually codewords for prostitution and child trafficking, Seaman started making videos about the findings. <\/b>He connected dots between Clinton and other super rich individuals and families often associated with conspiracy theories\u2014like the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds, and George Soros\u2014and sank deeper and deeper.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In most the videos he sits in front of a partially exposed greenscreen, talks about the latest research, and provides full-throated endorsements for the legitimacy of Pizzagate. Videos like \u201cHILLARY CLINTON BABY SACRIFICES: Revealed by WikiLeaks\u201d and \u201cSatanic PizzaGate Is Going Viral Worldwide (Elites Are Terrified),\u201d have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It was information from independent researchers like Seaman that inspired Edgar Welch to bring a rifle into a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant so that he could \u201cinvestigate\u201d the innocent children he believed were being held captive in a nonexistent basement. He fired shots, but no one was hurt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

After that incident, many public Pizzagaters shied away from the investigation. Alt-right heroes like Mike Cernovich and Infowars editor Paul Joseph Watson ceased tweeting about it. Alex Jones, the founder of Infowars, posted a video, \u201cPizza Gate Is a Diversion From the Greater Crimes in Podesta WikiLeaks<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cPizza\u2014that\u2019s a super common word\u2026 Quite frankly, out of the tens of thousands of emails, most of it is innocuous. I\u2019ve been staying away from it because it\u2019s easy for people who are innocent to get caught up in this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Commenters called him a sellout and a shill, and told him to wake up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Seaman pressed on and doubled-down, suggesting that Welch was a hired actor and the shooting was a staged event meant to discredit Pizzagaters. Only recently did Seaman delete all of his videos posted before Feb. 27. Seaman said he feared legal action.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This was right after BuzzFeed published an article<\/a> explaining how conspiracy theorists, like Seaman, were profiting off YouTube.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Now he plans to funnel his following into a new media endeavor, Fulcrum News. A blog version of the site is live, but Seaman expects to launch the full site in a few months. He said it will provide \u201cnonpartisan, factual news from independent contributors.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When The Daily Beast reached out to David Seaman to try to determine the legitimacy of his Pizzagate beliefs, he originally declined to comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t consider the Daily \u2018Beast\u2019 to be a reputable news source. Sorry\u2014not interested. You all had 4 months to cover the fact that the Clintons and the Podestas are involved in child trafficking and chose not to do so, which is inexcusable,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He then tweeted about the email exchange.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/twitter.com\/d_seaman\/status\/843936093506494468?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Farticles%2F2017%2F03%2F24%2Fthe-self-proclaimed-publicity-whore-and-fired-jezebel-intern-running-point-on-pizzagate.html<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Eventually, though, Seaman relented and opted to answer questions over email.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When asked if it\u2019s fair to make a connection between his self-promotion guru days and his current work, he does admit they are somewhat related.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI know how to do internet marketing. My Free Paris protest, as I explained in my book, was a mockery of the corporate media,\u201d Seaman wrote. \u201cThey gave airtime to an obviously preposterous faux protest. Pedogate\/Pizzagate has real victims in its wake\u2014mostly young children.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For what it\u2019s worth, it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cSo I used what I know of marketing to give them a voice in a way no one can silence or discredit. The WikiLeaks emails I\u2019ve helped get awareness for are, in my view, genuine\u2014they still have not been denied by John Podesta.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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During our initial interview with Cameron, Seaman\u2019s former campaign adviser, he was unsure if Seaman was a true Pizzagate believer. So he decided to reach out to Seaman for the first time in five years. He followed-up with The Daily Beast afterward.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cBy the end of the conversation, I was totally convinced he believes everything he\u2019s saying,\u201d Cameron said \u201cIt\u2019s not an act.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Seaman and Pizzagate protest organizer Wolfe will be demonstrating this weekend for a cause they have rechristened.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe think this whole term \u2018Pizzagate\u2019 has been vilified and hijacked by the mainstream media. We\u2019ve intentionally moved away from that term because we believe that negative connotations have been associated with it,\u201d Wolfe said as he ate chili during a break from building the Pedogate event stage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Wolfe first found out about Pizzagate when he was searching the leaked John Podesta emails for extraterrestrial-related correspondence between Hillary Clinton\u2019s then-campaign chairman and Tom DeLonge, Blink 182 member-turned-alien investigator.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He has has no idea how many activists will show. But he\u2019s feeling optimistic since more than 160 people have collectively contributed nearly $10,000 to the event. And he has a \u201cpolite and professional warning\u201d for any journalist reporting on the demonstration\u2014this reporter included.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cIf you try to take my words out of context then I\u2019m going to make you famous,\u201d Wolfe said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of folks behind this and there\u2019s a lot of folks like David Seaman who will participate in making people famous, who we believe are inaccurately reporting things\u2014particularly when they try and make this movement look as if people behind it are unstable extremists, or whatever other silly labels they want to attack us, because we\u2019re brave enough to go out on the street in the best interest of protecting children.\u201d<\/p>\n

___
\nhttp:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/articles\/2017\/03\/24\/the-self-proclaimed-publicity-whore-and-fired-jezebel-intern-running-point-on-pizzagate.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PIE IN THE FACE The Self-Proclaimed \u2018Publicity Whore\u2019 and Fired Jezebel Intern Running Point on Pizzagate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}