I’d like to take a moment to discuss a website that is one I have been studying for quite some time and one some of you may have heard of. The Free Thought Project (TFTP) is a very popular website, attracting hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of viewers, and has had their articles reprinted on dozens of other sites. The account’s twitter page has over 300,000 followers and the founder and editor-in-chief of the site claims his site receives, “six to 15 million unique views a month,”.[1] However, the site has spread a variety of claims that are very questionable and engages in practices that are highly suspicious, making them seem like something far less than a journalistic agency, which they claim to be. These questionable claims include the engagement of conspiracy theories revolving around Seth Rich, 9/11, Chemtrails, and many more. These suspicious practices mentioned include plagiarism in the form of stealing other’s work and using other’s work without proper crediting, making simple grammatical errors that look unprofessional, making factual errors that would be cleared up by the most basic forms of investigation, in addition to having a very odd revenue scheme. This work hopes to showcase just how TFTP has gone about endorsing these controversial and baseless views while not at all holding themselves up to a journalistic standard despite criticizing the mainstream media.

I should first note that I am judging TFTP as a journalistic entity. Some may disagree with this while saying, “They’re a news aggregate, not a news reporting site,” however, I wholeheartedly disagree. Not once in TFTP’s “About us” page, “Terms & Conditions” page nor elsewhere on the site does TFTP identify themselves as a news aggregate. Even their editor-in-chief and founder identifies himself as a journalist (in addition to being an activist), stating, “I like to think of journalism as activism…I think if you’re a journalist, you’re an activist,”.[2] First, this is an interesting take on journalism, as most would agree it is difficult to combine the two as journalism is supposed to be unbiased and strictly report what is said with minimal inflection of personal views or opinions whereas activism is inherently biased towards a specific viewpoint. I’m not saying that activism is wrong for holding bias, but there is a dichotomy that makes blending the two nearly impossible. Michael Blanding, an investigative journalist from Boston, wrote an article for Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism discussing this exact issue of the merging between journalism and activism. Blanding seems to take the viewpoint that journalism must remain unbiased and not verge into advocacy, stating, “openness extends to hearing the story of the police when writing about a protest, or hearing the story of an accused rapist when reporting on sexual assault, something most activists would never trouble themselves with,”.[3] Blanding’s interview with Samhita Mukhopadhyay, the executive editor of Teen Vogue, further illuminates his point as she says, “[journalism] does require some skill in recognizing other people’s points of view and being able to hear someone’s story…We all know none of these stories are black and white. Despite what your opinion is, if you are ruled by your opinion, that is not real reporting,”.[4]

However, what is important to note is that journalism has a strict code of ethics that it adheres to and is intended to be the standard for any and every journalist everywhere. One of the best and most concise descriptions of this code of ethics is in the Society of Professional Journalists, one of the oldest professional journalist associations in the United States. In their code, they describe four principles that must be maintained, these being to Seek Truth and Report It, Minimize Harm, Act Independently, and Be Accountable and Transparent. Within these areas are subsections, each describing what journalists should and should not do, some of these being;

Abide by the same high standards they expect of others.

Avoid pandering to lucid curiosity, even if others do so

Never plagiarize. Always attribute.

Never deliberately distort facts or context.

Provide context.

Gather, update and correct information throughout the life of a news story.

Label advocacy and commentary.

Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the two.

Remember that neither speed nor format excuses inaccuracy.

Avoid stereotyping.[5]

Their founder has also listed a challenge, saying, “Call us out. If you think we’re fake, try to prove that. They’re not going to be able to, which is why we’re not fake news,”.[6] It is my goal to prove that TFTP does not abide by these rules nor has any respect for the journalistic medium (despite their claim to be journalists and bring about fairness) in addition to proving that they are indeed fake news.

Now that that is clear, onto the analysis.

TFTP: A History

So, The Free Thought Project is a website that has the goal of being, “a hub for Free Thinking conversations about the promotion of liberty and the daunting task of government accountability… [it is our mission] to foster the creation and expansion of liberty minded solutions to modern day tyrannical oppression [and] by providing a beacon of truth amongst all the lies,”.[7] Basically, it seems to be about documenting government and state corruption, promoting accountability, and providing stories that often go unreported. The site was founded by Matt Agorist and Jason Bassler (a co-founder of Police the Police), who are listed on the About page as being longtime activists turned journalists, and one of the first posts made was by Agorist in 2012.[8] In October of 2013, the site was officially codified as a Limited Liability Company.[9] The site gained a serious amount of viewers due to their content which was seen as thumbing their nose to the mainstream media, being skeptical of big government, documenting instances of public and police corruption, and overall attracting a certain base of supporters that were more anti-government.

The site’s articles had (and still has) sensationalized headlines and extremely descriptive commentary (equating police officers and National Guardsmen to Nazis or the Gestapo being a prevalent one). A great amount of these articles too are very similar to clickbait tactics (meaning, “it is a headline which tempts the reader to click on the story [and often are] sensationalized, turn out to be adverts, or are simply misleading”[10]) and can be seen in the following headlines;

The World’s Dumbest Cop Pulled Over a Porn Star, Guess What Happened Next

10 Feelings Only An Anarchist Would Understand

Cop Car Prank Inadvertently Shows People’s Blind Trust in Police…Except for the Last Guy

Watch: Trump Melts Down As Man Holds Up Photo of Him and Billionaire Pedophile Epstein At Rally

MSM Using Kavanaugh Sex Scandal To Distract You From Real Reason He Shouldn’t Be Appointed

Are You Smart Enough To Pass The Citizenship Test? Find Out

With these examples, one is able to see that they are eye-catching, with the average person desiring to watch that video and see how the last guy does not put blind trust into authority, to read about what happened with the world’s dumbest cop, to see what the site says about Anarchists, or to see Trump’s meltdown. With these kind of tactics, it is quite obvious that they are engaging in clickbait methods designed to further improve traffic to the site and gain more followers of a certain ideology. The site’s usage of poorly done Photoshop (this article linked is also quite interesting as they try to claim that the mainstream media did not report at all about the Charlottesville white supremacist rally, a blatant lie as CNN covered the events throughout the day) and juxtaposition made to confuse and follow a very specific line of thought is also highly concerning and something that would be rare to find on a legitimate news agency.

The site grew and grew to a great degree, apparently attracting 3.1 million viewers on Facebook. In October of 2018, however, Facebook, “removed 559 Pages and 251 accounts that broke the social network’s rules against spam and “coordinated inauthentic behavior”,” while stating, “They [the sites in question] post clickbait posts on these Pages to drive people to websites that are entirely separate from Facebook and seem legitimate, but are actually ad farms…these networks increasingly use sensational political content – regardless of its political slant – to build an audience and drive traffic to their websites, earning money for every visitor to the site,” in addition to noting that these opinionated news stories are unintelligible from appropriate political discourse.[11] The Free Thought Project was one of these pages, becoming banned on both Facebook and Twitter. Naturally, a certain amount of outrage was created in response to this, with Free Thought discussing the bans on their own site[12] and certain subreddits on Reddit engaging in discussion of the banning of alternative media. Since then, TFTP has rebranded themselves on Facebook (taking on the name of The Free Thought Project 4.0) with almost 70,000 followers as of 06 April, 2020 at 1539 MT. Despite their Facebook ban, the site is still going strong and is able to pump out numerous articles a day.

However, is what TFTP doing factually inaccurate? After all, they may be clickbait, but are they getting items factually incorrect?

TFTP and the Facts

First, let’s examine TFTP’s factual reporting and their track record for reporting legitimate content. After a cursory search, it is easy to find many times when TFTP engaged in reporting practices that were unsound, misleading, or completely and wholly inaccurate.

On 24 January 2016, John Vibes penned an article with the headline, “Flint Residents Told That Their Children Could Be Taken Away If They Don’t Pay For City’s Poison Water”. The author states, “the city’s government continues to charge people for the poison water and then threatening to foreclose their home or take their children if they refuse to pay. Michigan law states that parents that are neglectful if they do not have running water in their home, and if they chose not to pay for water they can’t drink anyway, then they could be guilty of child endangerment,”.[13] The article also had a link to a video on the Flint water crisis from RT America, the American affiliate of the site formerly called Russia Today, the state-sponsored news organization of the Russian government and hardly an unbiased source when considering articles in relation to the United States.

Snopes, a fact-checking organization out of Tacoma, WA and noted for its ability to unbiasedly research political statements, ran an article on this story two days later after increased social media attention to this story. They rated it “False” for multiple reasons. In their description, they note, “The article confusingly vacillated between assertions supported by a largely undisputed chain of events (i.e., the water supply in Flint had been compromised for some time, and its effect on families was severe) with alarming but unsubstantiated claims (i.e., CPS was threatening to remove children affected by the crisis). The headline clearly stated that residents of Flint had been threatened with the intervention of Michigan’s Children’s Protective Services (CPS) agency if they refused to pay for water that was clearly not potable, but we were unable to locate any other account reporting on what would be an extraordinary scenario,”.[14] Snopes also reported that the article’s main assertion about children in the water crisis was flawed, noting, “…the item made a significant leap between something that could conceivably happen (children’s being removed from homes due to a lack of running water under normal circumstances) and something that might be far less likely to happen (CPS’ tasking itself with imposing upon the crisis in the city of Flint by using its scant resources to target families and children already burdened by an ongoing and unprecedented contamination of Flint’s water supply). We were unable to find any other reporting of such claims aside from ones citing The Free Thought Project, nor could we locate any independent, anecdotal reports claiming that CPS was removing children from homes “without running water” in Flint…the lack of running water in a home could certainly serve as grounds to initiate an investigation or even trigger removal of children from their home until basic living conditions are restored to the satisfaction of agencies tasked with ensuring children are safe from abusive or neglectful homes. Given widespread coverage of the Flint water crisis and its ongoing nature, the assertion doesn’t make much plausible sense (nor does it seem likely CPS could have the manpower to engage in such a large undertaking)”.[15] Snopes also contacted Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Safety (MDHHS) and MDHHS’ Child Services Agency to which the Department responded that they do not, “petition a court for removal solely because of lack of water [under circumstances in Flint or otherwise],”; the CSA Executive Director agreed with that stated position while also asserting, “[we have] not assigned a single Children’s Protective Services complaint due to any issues related to Flint water,”.[16]

So, due to extreme leaps in logic, deliberately twisting evidence and taking the words of a likewise uninformed resident via an RT America video, TFTP caused alarm when there was no real issue as CPS was not and would not remove children from a home due to having no running water. As the Snopes article makes note, “unsupported claims exacerbating concern and anxiety are not helpful to the residents of Flint or other people seeking credible information about the extent of an ongoing public health incident,”[17] which is exactly what TFTP did in this instance.

In a 30 March 2016 article, Matt Agorist wrote, “Mississippi House Bill 786 legalizes killing people while acting as a participant of a church or place of worship…This Bill legally recognizes actual “soldiers of Christ” and grants them the power to kill. What’s more, there is no justification for granting churches extra rights that other citizens do not have,”.[18] Snopes again ran a fact-check on this and found it “False”. First, nowhere in the bill does it mention “soldiers of Christ” nor “soldiers of God” and Snopes basically notes that TFTP’s entire analysis of the bill is wrong, stating, “While it is true the bill allows for armed security personnel to be present at church services, it isn’t aimed at allowing ordinary churchgoers to kill at will, nor does it…grant them absolute legal immunity from prosecution for killing anyone during church services. Under the provisions of the bill, any person seeking legal protection from criminal prosecution for involvement in a fatal shooting committed during church services would still be subject to arrest and trial with the hope that a jury would agree his actions were justifiable,” noting that those members of the security team could be, “shielded from civil liability stemming from the performance of their duties,”.[19]

So, really, Agorist’s entire argument is based on simply not understanding the bill and creating phrases that appear nowhere in any political or legal document to make the headline more appealing and eye-catching.

In another article, Agorist writes that, “tens of millions of Shia Muslims made an incredibly heartening statement, by risking their lives to travel through war-stricken areas to openly defy ISIS. This massive event that would have undoubtedly helped to ease tensions in the West was almost entirely ignored by corporate media,” before going on to quote The Independent as being one of the few news agencies to cover the event (and to piggyback off their reporters for quotes).[20] Snopes again ran a fact check on this story, not quoting TFTP’s article, and found that the event was authentic, yet that there were multiple problems with the overall story. In short, Agorist gets a few things wrong; when initially written, the article’s title was, “20 Million Muslims March Against ISIS and The Mainstream Media Completely Ignores It”, despite the fact that the march was an annual one[21], not specifically created to move against ISIS. However, Agorist’s usage of quotes seems to defend this idea and, even after the update, are left in the article. As well, his allegation of the mainstream media ignoring the march is blatantly false as Reuters, The Atlantic, the International Business Times, and the Washington Post all reported on the event as it occurred in 2016.

To a certain extent, Agorist deserves credit for updating the article’s headline. However, leaving in the content that the march was specifically to go against ISIS and that the mainstream media did not report on the subject when it was not at all true is poor on his part. As well, the fact that Agorist willfully ignored additional media reports from the mainstream and tried to market his own site and other alternative media sources as being the only agencies reporting on this is very wrong.

In a September 2016 article, also written by Agorist, he discusses an incident in the village of Miami Shores, Miami-Dade County and how a judge ruled that, “The village of Miami Shores…has every right to take legal action against residents who dare to grow food in their own yards because they are “ugly.” …According to the tyrannical legislation, all homeowners are subject to the same absurd constraints. Their yards must be covered in grass — that is the law,”.[22] First, the article’s headline of ‘the government’ (itself a broad term) being able to ban any and all vegetables and vegetable gardens is ludicrous and unbelievable. And it just so happens that it is unbelievable. The Miami Herald provided a much better account of the incident, writing, “Miami Shores still has every right to decide front-yard veggies make a neighborhood ugly… the village’s attorney said vegetable gardens are fine in Miami Shores, as long as they remain out of sight in the backyard,”.[23] Agorist also claims that, “For 17 years, the couple grew their own food in their front yard until one day, the state came knocking,”[24], neglecting to inform the reader that, “The threatened fine came a few months after the Miami Shores Village Council adopted a new zoning plan for the town of about 10,500 north of Miami,”.[25] In this instance, he leaves out the vital information that the decision was based upon a new zoning plan produced by the municipality, not the State of Florida.

To quote Snopes in their analysis, “It is true that a Miami Shores couple fought and lost a court battle with the village to retain their front-yard vegetable garden, but the court’s decision in no way “banned vegetable gardens,” much less constituted a sweeping ruling applicable anywhere outside Miami Shores. A local judge simply sided with Miami Shores Village in ruling that the jurisdiction had a right to enforce extant landscaping codes, which permit vegetable gardens in rear yards but not front ones. The couple involved were not prohibited from growing vegetables, simply from doing so in the front yard,”.[26]

TFTP’s headline is deliberately engineered to get as many clicks as possible and increase traffic through the site. His deliberate attempt to not report the news in full is also very unethical and unfair to the reader as he is denying them context to the event and all the information on the incident.

On 24 July 2018, TFTP put up an article written by Rachel Blevins, a correspondent at RT, which was titled, “In Just The Last Two Weeks, Dozens of Children In Iowa Have Vanished,” and claimed, “48 people have gone missing in the past two weeks, and 34 of those people are children,” with the rest of the article going into talking about a specific case of a University of Iowa student going missing, nationwide statistics on children being reported missing, how TFTP has been documenting this, and then closing saying, “what kind of a difference could the media make if it started focusing less on Stormy Daniels and Russia hysteria, and more on innocent children who go missing every day in the United States?,”.[27]

Again, there are some truths and inaccuracies in the reporting. It is true that 48 people went missing and that 34 of them were children in the state of Iowa. However, what is misleading is the section about trying to convince the reader that these numbers are high and that there is something special about this number. Iowa’s Department of Public Safety responded to increased questions about the incident and said, “In light of the missing person investigation of Mollie Tibbits, concerns have come to light about the number of juveniles reported missing in Iowa in recent weeks. In [fiscal year] 2017 4,311 juveniles were reported missing to The Missing Person Information Clearinghouse. This is an average of approximately 12 juveniles a day. The vast majority of which are found or returned home within 24 hours. Typically these cases are runaway situations. The number of missing juveniles reported in recent weeks is in line with historical numbers,”.[28] Snopes also got ahold of the article and found that, in the three days since the article was posted, “13 of those names had already been removed from the list, indicating those cases had been resolved,” while also pointing out that the article, “closed by asserting that “While individual cases such as the disappearance of Mollie Tibbetts [University of Iowa student] do receive some national media attention, the overwhelming majority are swept under the rug and forgotten.” This statement was also misleading and inaccurate: Mollie Tibbetts is not an example of a missing “child” (she’s a 20-year-old woman), and in fact the overwhelming majority of missing children (over 97%) are found and returned home,”.[29]

Now, Blevins updated her article on 27 July and said, “In a reaction to the news coverage the recent missing persons cases has received, the DPS responded. Iowa DPS says the number of “missing juveniles reported in recent weeks is in line with historical numbers.” It is important to point out that this does not make 34 missing children any less newsworthy or otherwise “sensational.”,”.[30] However, Blevins neglects to include that 13 of those on the list have since been found and that their case has closed in addition to fixing the portions of the article that have caused misinformation and misinterpretation. A journalist is responsible for their content and the way in which they word their reporting, it is their job to update, provide context, and avoid these kinds of problems. As well, the ending portion of the article alleging that the media is focusing on “Russia hysteria” (which in turn links to this article also written by Blevins), is quite ludicrous in that it insinuates that the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and investigating President Trump’s ties to the Russian government is hysterics or faulty.

On 7 June 2018, Agorist ran an article that was in defense of another article written by Neon Nettle, both of which reported (factually) that law enforcement in Georgia had successfully rescued 160 children from 150 sex traffickers, but then made claims that another group near Tucson, AZ were also trafficking children (basing this off of the recounting of a group called Veterans on Patrol (VOP)).[31] First, the only evidence for this entire claim in Arizona came about from the VOP group when they, “stumbled across the abandoned homeless camp on private property in Tucson decided that the presence of child’s toys at one end of the camp and pornographic magazines elsewhere was obvious evidence of child sex trafficking, rather than ordinary detritus left behind at a temporary site where those migrating from one region to another chose to stop for a while and perhaps have a moment or two alone to tend to some rather common needs. That group also decided (again, without any evidence) that straps tied around trees were “restraints” for holding children in bondage, rather than for some other more prosaic use, such as tying up tarps to provide shade from the relentless Arizona sun. When local and federal authorities investigated the site and found nothing but an abandoned homeless encampment, the same “veteran’s group” immediately accused law enforcement of orchestrating a massive cover-up,”.[32] This is obviously, in no way whatsoever, credible evidence and is essentially a conspiracy theory. It is also rather poor on TFTP’s part to accept the credibility of a group that engages in the promotion of right-wing conspiracies (example of this in the VOP link above).

So really, TFTP had no evidence as to the fact that there was a child sex ring in Arizona beyond the words of an incredible source that jumped to conclusions and started a fervor over the incident. Anyone exercising any thought process can see that to make such a conclusion is idiotic, yet TFTP engaged in such an endeavor purely to gain clicks to their site.

PolitiFact also ran two articles on Free Thought Project claims, finding both to be false. One involved a post and a link to an article on Twitter in which they claimed that New York State was forcing residents to pay for stargazing permits to view the night sky in public parks.[33] The permit has been around since the 1970’s and is good for select parks in Long Island, so not all of New York State and not in every public park either; the permit also, “allows people interested in stargazing into areas of the parks that would typically be closed [and allows permit-holders to] park their vehicles in certain areas of parks after dark for stargazing only,”.[34] Again, TFTP, in response to the criticism, revised their headline (changing “Forced” to “Required”) while also trying to claim their showing the screenshot insinuated that they were not claiming that all parks in New York State abided by these rules; they also ended their update stating, “The Free Thought Project never set out to intentionally mislead our readers,”.[35] It is interesting that they would place an update on this article, when some of the other articles have no updates despite being shown to be incorrect or misleading.

Blatant falsities in reporting is also not the only kind of journalism one can expect from TFTP. In my own research, I have found that TFTP has engaged in plagiarism of the highest order (the taking of someone else’s work and attributing it to one’s own self). In a 05 February 2020 article, labeled an “Exclusive”, TFTP reported a story in Springfield, MO of a woman named Angela Goodwin who was the victim of an incident in which Springfield officers entered her home and, in a video recording which Goodwin later posted to Facebook, searched her home and engaged in what is very rough handling of her cat; from the article, “The Free Thought Project spoke to the woman who took the video who explained how the behavior from these officers made her sick to her stomach. “I was sick to my stomach, it made me sick,” said Goodwin. “I mean, I understood to a point they have to go through stuff,” Goodwin said, “But, once I actually watched the video… that’s not what they were doing.”,”.[36] Certainly a harrowing story and ordeal, however, the entire article is plagiarized from a year old article made by KYTV 3, an NBC affiliate based out of Springfield, MO.[37] Below are two screenshots from both articles, with the TFTP being first and the KYTV 3 article being second. I will leave it up to the reader to determine if the content is plagiarized or not.

I for one find it awfully convenient that Goodwin happened to say exactly the same thing she said to KYTV 3 when she was interviewed by TFTP more than a year later. There are also texts that TFTP attributes to her that are not present in the KYTV 3 article and it is unknown how TFTP gained access to this. The article does mention Goodwin’s Facebook page (which they do not provide a link to) so it is possible that they took what she had written there and applied it to the post. Either that or TFTP wholesale invented text and attributed it to her. Regardless, the fact that TFTP does not link to the KYTV 3 article when it is literally the only other site to discuss this incident is also extremely poor on their part and is a deliberate attempt to cover their devious and duplicitous nature.

Not only does this article cast doubt on the rest of the site’s credibility, but it is quite simply unfair to KYTV 3 which actually did report on this incident and were the ones who actually interviewed the woman.

TFTP’s writing style is also very confusing, with their making small inaccuracies that other news agencies are prone to, but performing them so often to the point that such inaccuracies are noticeable and confuse the reader.

For example, in multiple articles, the author will get the state in which the incident occurs wrong. In a 02 December 2019 article, Agorist writes, “Clearwater County, MI – …a deputy with the Clearwater County Sheriff’s Office, was charged last week with multiple counts of criminal sexual misconduct,”.[38] There is no Clearwater County, Michigan, however, there is a Clearwater County, Minnesota, which has the state abbreviation of MN and is where the encounter actually took place.[39] The TFTP article later even has a hyperlink to an article out of Minneapolis that describes the entire incident and event. In another article, this one written by Jack Burns on 30 March 2020, he states, “Crawfordsville, IL – Police officers in Crawfordsville appear to have attempted to get a man to incriminate himself…,”.[40] Now, while there is a Crawfordsville in Illinois, the incident actually took place in Crawfordsville, Indiana and this is supported later in the author’s opening paragraph as well as in the title of the primary source utilized by TFTP in gaining this information.[41] The most basic journalism practices being performed by a competent reporter would have prevented this from occurring and confusing the reader. Now, examining these articles today (as of 1058 on 29 May 2020), one will see that TFTP corrected the errors seen in the article, however, they issued no correction nor update within the article nor does it show in the date line that the article has been updated.

In other articles, there are simply inaccuracies that are neither intentional nor deliberate (like what has been previously been discussed with the Snopes and PolitiFact examples), but instead showcase the problem of poor reporting. As an example, on a 04 March 2020 article written by Matt Agorist, he documents the case of Alexandra Hill in Texas, a young girl who was removed from her parents due to marijuana usage and one of the parent’s history of seizures and was placed into foster care before dying of subdural hemorrhaging at the hands of her foster caretakers, one of whom was a recovering drug user.[42] Later in the article, he writes, “Small [the foster mother who murdered Hill] would eventually be arrested and tried for murder. On Tuesday, according to KLFY, she was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Alexandria Hill,”.[43] First, one would assume that, being this was written Wednesday, March 4, that Small was sentenced Tuesday, March 3; in reality, she was sentenced 01 November of 2014 according to the National Parents Organization[44] and died in prison in December of 2016.[45] TFTP also links to an article with a dead link, and, upon trying to find such an article from KLFY on the Small case, I was unable to find a single article mentioning Small or Hill on the news site.

However, while examining the story closer, I noticed something very important. Agorist mentions in the headline and in the text that the marijuana was medical noting, “Joshua Hill [the father] told a case worker…he would smoke marijuana…to treat his medical condition. The case worker couldn’t have cared less that the marijuana helped stave off seizures,”.[46]

However, as Mother Jones, BuzzFeedNews, FOX6, The Houston Press, The Austin Statesman, and Huffington Post all reported, the mother had seizures, not the father, and in none of these articles was it ever mentioned that the father took marijuana for medicinal purposes. Again, not only did TFTP give factually inaccurate information on Small’s conviction, but they deliberately twisted what actually occurred so that the story would get more clicks and attention. As is the case with a lot of TFTP articles, much of the article’s basis came from The Houston Press before being copied and pasted with slight changes to the article’s content to make it more inflammatory or to make it seem as not being plagiarized. Interestingly, this tactic was also utilized by Russian hackers subcontracted by Russian intelligence during the 2014 Ukrainian revolution; in one hacker’s recollections to a journalist, “he needed to rewrite twenty articles a day, averaging eight hundred words each…The goal was to rewrite articles that could get to the top of Google and Yandex, so the website needed to contain unique text. Social media was vital to the job, as the articles had to be promoted on platforms where they could gain the most traffic…the facts and central themes of the article would remain unchanged with just key chunks of text rewritten…The changes weren’t, he thought, significant. He needed to change words like “terrorist” and “separatist” into “militia” and instead of “Ukrainian army” write “national guard” or “volunteer battalions” [words that in Eastern Europe most connote with right-wing],”.[47] The similarities between articles like what TFTP often produces and what Russian hacker groups have done is astounding.

In another article written by Agorist, publishing on 10 August 2019, he writes, “Muskegon police officer Charles Anderson has been placed on paid vacation and not fired after racist KKK memorabilia was discovered in his home. The department assures the public that they are investigating the allegations,”.[48] Now, in terms of being a good journalist, one of the key tenants is to update articles and correct information. On 12 September 2019, over a month later, NBC News reported that the officer was terminated from the department.[49] Despite this, there is no update to the article nor is there another article publishing this development or new information to the site’s readers. Because of this, it is reasonable that many readers would presume that the officer has not been fired or otherwise disciplined for the actions committed. By not following up or creating a new article detailing this, Agorist is being deceptive to his readers.

Another key aspect of TFTP’s reporting is a focus on anti-government news. While TFTP often documents this content in the form of law enforcement (and occasionally military), there is a surprising amount of content that focuses on widely debunked conspiracies, the specific ones reported on being more prolific in right-wing circles. As an example of the type of conspiracies promulgated, here is a short list;

It’s Been 51 Years, And Most Don’t Know The FBI & Police Admitted Their Role In The Assassination of Dr. King (article claims that the FBI and Memphis PD admitted to assassinating King, but the only evidence provided is that of the 1999 result of a civil trial (which has been regarded by various authorities as being improperly conducted) and the fact that the FBI admitted to sending King a letter insinuating that he kill himself, committing a Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc fallacy; as well, the article was written 04 April 2017, however, subtracting 51 years from 2017 gets you to 1966 and King was assassinated 04 April 1968[50], not 1966. If someone is making an argument that the assassination was a conspiracy, then one should have a full and complete understanding of the subject matter, which the author obviously does not have)

Media Remains Silent On Sen. McCain’s KKK Ancestry And How He Put Neo-Nazis In Power In Ukraine (the article notes that McCain’s great-great-grandfather served under Nathan Bedford Forrest, with the headline manipulating the reader into believing that one of McCain’s ancestors was a legitimate Klan member and then goes into discussing McCain’s support for Ukrainian protestors who are against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Ukrainian president’s decision to strengthen ties with the Russians – no surprise that this article is written by RT America correspondent Rachel Blevins)

Documents Reveals Two US Soldiers Overheard Plot To Kill JFK – And Were Committed After Reporting It (the article quotes two CIA documents, neither of which provide evidence that the men were committed to mental institutions after their claims nor do they provide any other evidence for such a claim; one of the sources, the one discussing Alex des Fonatines forTime-Life and his allegation that said Dinkin was talking about the JFK assassination also notes, “des Fontaines thought he recalled he had heard Dinkin say something like that also and although he did not really believe that Dinkin had grounds for his statement when he made them,”. As well, even though the article claims that these documents were released in the Nov. 2017 and Apr. 2018 document release, the source discussing Dinkin was uploaded to the Mary Ferrell Foundation on 25 November 1998)

A Year Ago Today, Seth Rich Was Murdered & His Death Is Still Being Covered Up (the article alleges first that Seth Rich was murdered for leaking the contents of John Podesta’s email and much of the DNC files given to WikiLeaks by Russian intelligence without providing any new evidence beyond an “investigation” conducted by an agency driven by Jack Burkman)

As War Drums Beat For Iran, Remember, Lies And Propaganda Started Nearly Every War In US History (the article alleges that Roosevelt and his administration received knowledge of the Pearl Harbor attack, yet did not attempt to stop the attack. A common theory, there is no historical evidence to back up this claim and many historians and journalists have covered the theory, proving it to be false and without the evidence necessary to back it up)

Another area of importance is who a journalist aligns oneself with. Obviously, if a journalist collects sources only from the U.S. government or from the state, or if a journalist collects information from only counter protestors and activist groups, then their reporting will be slanted and may not be fully accurate, showing both sides of the story, as well as indicating how one might be thinking politically and otherwise. With Agorist and TFTP, there have been many partnerships made between him and his site with others that are extremely questionable for their own promulgation of conspiracy theories, poor fact checking record, lazy reporting and editing. Some of these include;

InfoWars with Alex Jones (promoter of the idea that Sandy Hook was staged among a wide variety of other conspiracies; also someone that TFTP is unashamed to be associated with, with Bassler discussing Jones almost as a role model[51]) – https://www.infowars.com/?s=matt%20agorist

ZeroHedge (engages in various conspiracy theories that are of a right-wing bend) – https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-09-05/major-university-study-finds-fire-did-not-bring-down-tower-7-911

GlobalResearch (promotes a variety of conspiracies along an anti-Semitic, pro-Russia/al-Assad bend, denies the Rwandan and Srebrenica genocides and that Tiananmen Square was a hoax, denies Russian involvement in 2016 election) – https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/matt-agorist

Lew Rockwell (Anarcho-Capitalist site, known for AIDs denialism and anti-vaxx promulgation while also having close ties to white supremacist organizations) – https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/01/no_author/new-bill-to-allow-cops-to-detain-citizens-force-them-to-explain-who-they-are-what-theyre-doing/

DC Dirty Laundry (Extreme right conspiracy news source with multiple failed fact checks) – https://dcdirtylaundry.com/author/matt-agorist/

Russian Insider (Questionable source along a right-wing bend and has allegations of anti-Semitism) – https://russia-insider.com/en/matt-agorist

DC Clothesline (Extreme right propaganda and Conspiracy, fake news prone source) – https://www.dcclothesline.com/author/matt-agorist/

The Mind Unleashed (Promulgator of various conspiracies about Autism, Free Energy, Gluten, and Vaccines) – https://themindunleashed.com/author/tftp11

Many of these sources are also reprinted on TFTP’s own site and TFTP in turn reposts some of their articles onto theirs. They also share many of the same authors.

What is also apparent through these is the site’s political bias and Matt Agorist’s own personal bias, this being aligned more to a Conservative thought process. Now, many of the articles written and posted by Matt Agorist (and The Free Thought Project) also repeat some of the conspiracy theories that are present in current and past right-wing circles. He himself has endorsed many conspiracies and talking points that revolve around the right-wing. A few of the articles in which Agorist’s bias towards a political leaning have shown, including;

An article titled, “Watch: Julian Assange Suggests Murdered DNC Staffer Seth Rich, Was Source For WikiLeaks,” in which Agorist writes, “As Hilary Clinton’s campaign progresses, so does the trail of dead bodies left in her wake. And now…we are finding out that a murder last month of DNC staffer Seth Rich is also tied to Hilary Clinton,” with the article continuing discussing the Assange interview in which he suggests that Rich was the leak (this being convenient for him to do as it throws off the fact that the Russian government gave him this information as the CIA, FBI, and NSA all believed in their report) before ending his article with, “While Clinton’s control of the mainstream press keeps these ominous details from the public, the suspicious deaths are undeniable. What they show us is that it is indeed dangerous to portray Clinton in a negative light,”.[52] It’s pretty obvious that the author has a very strong, anti-Clinton vibe as they’re using deaths that are otherwise innocuous with no outright suggestion of foul play and taking the words of a very unreliable source to justify their argument. There are also many, many other articles on Clinton which are incredibly biting and are very much anti-Clinton.

As an example, in one article, Agorist plays on one of the largest right-wing conspiracies of the 1990’s, the Waco Siege with the headline stating, “Never Forget: The US Gov’t Carried Out The Largest Church Massacre – 26 Years Ago, In Texas,”. First, the article was written on 08 November 2017; it’s a known fact that the Waco Siege began on 28 February 1993 and ended 19 April 1993[53], which would make 2017 be 24 years since the siege. So even with the most basic facts and utilizing extremely basic math, Agorist still gets essential information that is not debatable wrong. What is more interesting is at one point, he writes, “In 1992, Child Protective Services (CPS) was called in to investigate the accusations. After a thorough investigation, CPS concluded no one was being held at the compound against their will, nor any child abuse, and the federal prosecutor, who reviewed the report, saw no reason to prosecute Koresh,”.[54] The next sentence and paragraphs then make it seem like the FBI (which only became truly involved in the operation once the ATF had raided the compound on 28 February 1993) then continued on investigating the group while discarding that evidence; later in the article however, Agorist notes, “Even though it was later determined Koresh had, indeed, molested children, and was by all intents and purposes a pedophile of the worst kind…”, which is something that should have been included immediately after the sentence above, not next to a bolded sentence where it might not get looked at. In addition to other problems with the article (such as ignoring audio transcripts from FBI bugs planted in the compound which seem to show Davidians pouring oil, and completely ignoring the Danforth Report, which showed that the pyrotechnic tear gas rounds fired did not start the fire[55] and had testimony from surviving Davidians saying they did start the fire[56]), the biggest problem is in the headline in which Agorist cannot seem to do simple math nor remember the most basic facts.

There are multiple examples of TFTP getting important dates wrong and being unable to do the most basic math. Below are a series of examples, from articles written by both Matt Agorist and Claire Bernish.

In a 21 August 2017 article on Ruby Ridge, titled, “27 Years Ago Today The Federal Govt Changed Its Rules To Launch A Sniper Attack On Off-Grid Family,” the writer discusses the event that occurred in Northern Idaho.[57] First, 2017 minus 27 equals 1990, and the incident occurred at Ruby Ridge in 1992[58], so a pretty big mistake for something that, again, should be well understood by someone writing an article on the event. In a 21 February 2017 article, Agorist discusses his own theory that the government assassinated Malcolm X in an article titled, “On The 54thAnniversary Of His Murder, Watch Malcolm X Prophesize Today’s Police State,”. Again, he does not seem to have a strong grasp of the content as 2017 minus 54 would get one 1963; Malcolm X (as it says in quite literally the first paragraph) was assassinated 21 February 1965.[59] In a 16 March 2017 article titled, “50 Years Ago Today, The US Slaughtered 500 Unarmed Men, Women, & Children,” Bernish discusses the My Lai massacre.[60] Now, 2017 minus 50 gets one to 1967; the My Lai massacre, unequivocally occurred on 16 March 1968[61]. Bernish again writes an article on 16 March 2018, the headline of this one reading, “Never Forget, 52 Years Ago The US Slaughtered 500 Unarmed Men, Women, and Children,”.[62] Again, Bernish makes multiple mistakes; first, 2018 minus 52 equals 1966, when, as it is broadly known, the My Lai massacre occurred in 1968. I find it very odd that Bernish, having written an article about this exactly one year prior makes such a big mistake in getting the number wrong; logically, I would expect her next article on this event to be fifty-one years, not fifty-two. So, it could be reasoned that she does not do any research at all when reporting on events. Now, what is also interesting is that Bernish’s 2018 article on My Lai is, word-for-word, the exact same as her 2017 article, with no credit being given to her previous article. In the eyes of many English professors, scholars, and universities, Bernish has just committed self-plagiarism.[63]

Normally, this could be chalked up to poor editing or a typo. However, this is a recurring theme with many of TFTP’s articles and is a problem that cannot be chalked up to either of those. What this does show is a desire to crank out articles quickly, in the fastest way possible to gain the most amount of views and remain topical. However, from a reporting standpoint, the author must get the facts correct and the subject of dates is the most basic fact in a historical event. At the very least, the year in which the event occurred should be correct. All of these examples show that TFTP does not care about the facts of a case or event and purely desires the most clicks on their articles and site, utilizing clickbait tactics by including “X number of years ago…” in the headlines of articles.

Not only does Agorist approve of both new (Seth Rich) and old (Waco) right-wing conspiracies, but he also seems to enjoy posting and approving of articles that center around destroying Clinton. For example, here are articles he wrote that express a disdain for Clinton and her policies while also utilizing Russia’s information warfare campaign to discredit the Democratic nominee;

In Case You Thought Hillary Would Be Indicted For Emails, Think Again-White House Says No Way

Mainstream Media Just Told The World Clinton ‘Clinched’ The Nomination-But They’re Fooling You

Hillary Clinton: “The Sight Of A Black Man In A Hoodie Is Scary” Even To “Open Minded Whites”

This is not to say Agorist approves of Trump, as there are numerous articles written by him in which he is critical of the man. However, it is also undeniable to say that Agorist does not, to some extent, engage and believe in these theories and allegations as his writing upon them is extensive. As well, it is important to note that as one of the main writers and editors of the site, his entire job is to edit what works are put on the site and maintain the site’s intent, whatever it may be in his eyes. With so many authors who push right-wing conspiracies, are vehemently opposed to Clinton and the Democratic party (in addition to Republican elites) why isn’t it probable that Agorist buys into some of these views and holds them as truth.

Now, there is one more affiliation that TFTP has which is very concerning. The Free Thought Project, I have found, has a very close affiliation to the site RT, formerly known as Russia Today. This site is the state-sponsored news source for the Russian government. Now, any news agency that is unequivocally and blatantly described as being state-sponsored, first, should be treated as a biased source and taken with skepticism. The reasoning for this is obvious as the source will not be independent or really go against whatever the government in power is saying. The source’s content should be even more scrutinized when one has a government that is despotic or dictatorial (the Syrian Arab News Agency in Syria, the Anadolu Agency of Turkey, and the Turkmenistan State News Agency of Turkmenistan all being prime examples). The vast majority of independent researchers on politics, international relations and journalists from all sectors of U.S. and European reporting agencies and governmental agencies both domestic and abroad all regard RT as being a state-run media organization involved in anti-U.S./Western propaganda and being a questionable source. Matt Agorist, however, sees this quite differently.

Via the account named, “The Free Thought Project”, Agorist reposts many articles from RT such as these;

Hillary Gets To Run For President As The Hacker Who Exposed Her War Crimes Is Extradited To US

BBC Producer Comes Forward With Syria Bombshell-Sarin Attack ‘Hospital Scene Was Staged’

March To Martial Law? Undercover Special Forces To Sweep US Southwest

Pentagon Admits They Have No Evidence On Syrian Chemical Attack-Threatens War Anyway

Obviously, taking articles from such a discredited source is poor on TFTP’s part, but this does not necessarily mean one agrees with them. However, in a 20 July 2014 article, Agorist reposts an article from Dr. Paul Craig Roberts (former Asst. Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and noted conspiracy theorist, with interesting views on the JFK assassination and the Charlie Hebdo Shooting in addition to supporting Holocaust denier David Irving’s views on the Second World War) in which the entire article tries to cast doubt on the fact that Russia blew up the plane with a missile.[64] Agorist, by putting his name to this, whether he means to or not, is agreeing and endorsing that the Russians did not engage in the destruction of MH17 (going against what the evidence says) and basically parroting and agreeing what the Russian government says about the incident.[65]

In fact, if one looks at all the articles that come up when “Putin” is typed into TFTP’s search bar, there is not a single critical article of Vladimir Putin, with the articles mentioning him having headlines like these;

Watch: Putin Hints JFK Was Murdered By the “Deep State” Says It’s Now Targeting Russia

Putin Issues Large Scale Warning To The World: North Korea ‘On The Verge Of A Large-Scale Conflict’

Breaking: Putin Says He’s Willing To Turn Over Transcripts Of Trump Meeting With Russians

Declassified Report Claims Putin ‘Ordered’ Campaign To Erode Faith In US Election – By Telling The Truth

Putin Exposes Obama’s Lame Duck Attempt To Start A New Cold War By Refusing To Retaliate

Putin Calls Out Assassination of Ambassador As ‘Clearly’ Provocative To ‘Undermine Peace In Syria’

Putin Lays Down The Gauntlet To Obama Over Hacking Claims: ‘Show Proof Or Shut Up’

Putin Sends Aircraft Carrier Group To Mediterranean As Syrian Powderkeg Poised To Erupt

Putin Calls Out The US And Its Allies For ‘Destabilizing’ The Middle East & Creating Terrorism

In The Last 24-Hours, Russia Has Destroyed Nearly All ISIS Ammunition & Heavy Vehicles

With articles like these, it is clear to see how TFTP views Putin and Russia, viewing them as anti-imperialists (though I think an argument could be made for the Ukraine, Chechnya, and Crimea that Russia is quite imperialistic) and supporters of the causes they the authors desire. I also find it rather quite interesting how Agorist, in other articles, mentions “statists” and their collusion with the mainstream media to “prevent the public from finding out about real world news events” (though, as we have seen with certain articles, is not at all the case), yet has nothing but praise to say about Putin’s policies and tactics. For being so much against the U.S. and Western states for their centralized control over society and economics, he has nothing but seeming admiration for the way Putin is performing this, which, by most accounts, is far more authoritarian and despotic. With this type of loyalty to RT, the usage of passionate and supportive language of Vladimir Putin’s totalitarian regime, the inclusion of conspiracy theories that have been found to be linked to Russian hackers acting on the word of Russian intelligence and the President of Russia himself,[66] I personally find the fact that Agorist publishes these on his site highly suspect. I think it is very possible he and The Free Thought Project, either consciously or subconsciously, are engaging in information warfare, much like another site they have links to, GlobalResearch.[67]

Why are these many right-wing conspiracies, pseudoscience and sensationalizing articles published?

Now, one question some of you may have is, why is TFTP doing this? They have the ability to attain a large following, the skills to create a site that is visually appealing (although ad laden that makes things hectic for mobile users), and the time to somewhat edit and write articles, so why are they making so many mistakes, writing articles in such ways, and overall being the most self-righteous they can possibly be? This is an interesting question and one that I have found an answer to. Quite simply, it has to do with money.

In an investigation made by WUSA 9, a CBS-affiliate in the District of Columbia, they described The Free Thought Project as an example of fake news and were able to interview Matt Agorist. However, this was not easy as they state, “Dozens of voicemails, emails, Tweets and Facebook messages left us with several cancelled interviews and no real confirmation of his identity or credentials. It turns out Matt Agorist is not his real name. The pen name is an offshoot of the term “agorism,” a concept related to libertarian counter-economics,”.[68] The fact that the name is a pseudonym is pretty dishonest and not very transparent. I for one find it very interesting that they demand that government and law enforcement have transparency yet they themselves are not capable of holding themselves to the same standards they expect of others.

With some digging, Matt Agorist’s real name can be easily found. A search for “free thought llc” provides the link to a website on corporate entities (OpenCorporates) and then to Louisiana’s Secretary of State’s business filings page. This page confirms there is a Limited Liability Company titled “Free Thought LLC.”, which lists both a man named Matt and a man named Jason Bassler as officers of the company.[69] As mentioned previously, Bassler is confirmed as being one of the co-founders of TFTP on their “About Us” page. Also, in the video of the Agorist interview conducted by WUSA-9, there are a series of degrees on the back wall; it is possible to read the name of a university which matches a university that it appears the Matt associated with the LLC graduated from in 2003.[70] This individual also appears to be a registered Republican[71] which might explain why there are so many right-wing conspiracies hosted on the site. All of this comes back to addresses consistent with TFTP. Agorist also is a former U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant who allegedly worked intelligence with the NSA.

It is also important to note that, sometime after Facebook removed a variety of content, including TFTP, from their servers, both of TFTP’s founders were interviewed by RT to talk about it. In one section, they write, “It is hard to overestimate the implications for those that were swept up in the purge, Matt (last name mentioned in article, but removed from here due to privacy concerns) of The Free Thought Project said…”.[72] Now, why is this important? Because, up until then, Matt Agorist was the name gone by; WUSA-9 did not disclose Agorist’s real name in their interview, Bassler never revealed Agorist’s real name in any interview, everything on the site was linked back to Agorist and still is, post October 2018 (the date the RT article was published). What this means is that either (A) Agorist was comfortable enough to share his real name or (B) RT already knew Agorist’s real name and utilized it in their quotations because they had a profitable relationship with one another. Not only did Agorist give his real name in an interview with RT, but he made similar comments under his real name to Sputnik, also another Russian Federation supported news organization.

Not only does Agorist have odd ties to RT, but this extends to other members affiliated with the site. One member of the site, both a writer and the site’s social media marketer, Johnny Liberty, created a site called MuricaToday, which was abbreviated as MT. The site is now deactivated by was seen as being an RT copy and archived copies of this site suggest as much. The link between MuricaToday and The Free Thought Project is also solidified in an interview the author gave to a YouTube channel. It is very odd that TFTP exhibits such a longing admiration for both Vladimir Putin and Russia Today as well as hiring people who are affiliated with the organization, have created similar organizations, and proliferated similar content. It seems very probable that TFTP’s alliance and close relationship with Russian government sources is more than a coincidence and may go beyond a journalistic relationship.

However, going back to the WUSA article, the reporters note, “Another crucial aspect that sets The Free Thought Project apart from the mainstream is their “pay for performance” business model. His writers are paid based on how many clicks each article gets online. Simply put, more clicks equal a bigger paycheck. Agorist maintains his site receives anywhere between six to 15 million unique views a month and reaches 60 million people on Facebook. You don’t need to be a mathematician to know that there is a potential for financial gain. When it comes to media consumption today, if the content is compelling—and incendiary—enough, you’ll get the clicks. As editor-in-chief, Matt Agorist stands by the validity of the content posted on The Free Thought Project. Many of the facts that serve as the foundation for stories on the site are attributed to reputable, mainstream news outlets, such as Reuters and Associated Press,”.[73]

This is where a lot of TFTP’s tactics become understandable now. The site has a pay-per-click method, so naturally, the more clicks gotten on articles, then the more revenue the site will be able to collect. The site needs to be able to get clicks on their massive amount of articles, so the more incendiary the content is or the more sensationalized headlines and articles are, the more clicks they’ll get and in turn revenue. As well, TFTP’s alliances with other media sources that are widely discredited and extremely verging into the conspiratorial and almost insane allows their site to get free advertising and, by making content that deliberately appeals to the members of other, more Conspiracy prone sites, they will get more members and more revenue. The entire point of TFTP’s sensationalizing, clickbait type headlines, intense and often vitriolic commentary has the end goal of gaining revenue for the site’s writers and owners; the advertising of content on other sites like GlobalResearch and ZeroHedge and RT amplifies the spread that TFTP has and the way in which they are catering their content with articles that are anti-Trump, articles that are anti-Hilary, articles that touch on right-wing conspiracies. As well, due to Agorist’s political affiliation, it is now understandable why there are so many right-wing conspiracies that are present on the site; he probably agrees with most of them or at least recognizes the potential they have economically. What is even more interesting about this is that Agorist admits that the majority of the facts are taken from more mainstream agencies; to be classified as journalism, one must produce and distribute reports on developments in the realm of news and current events. By taking the facts that others have reported on (sometimes days or weeks afterward) and including one’s own commentary around the actual facts of the incident, then that is not legitimate journalism nor breaking news journalism, as TFTP tries to sell themselves.

The entire endeavor is designed to make money and be profitable to the founders and writers. The expanding of TFTP content to other news agencies which cater to both anti-government and conspiracy theorist types is not because they as a whole agree with everything, but in order to gain more revenue for themselves. Even on their main page, there is a disclaimer that I have not found on any other reputable news organization’s website (beyond in the columns/opinion section), which states, “Any views expressed here-in are not necessarily those held by TheFreeThoughtProject.com,”.[74] This type of disclaimer is something one more sees on opinionated articles or columns on the Washington Post or the New York Times, not something one would find on a website that, on the whole, classifies themselves as being a journalistic entity.

Conclusions

The final question I pose to those who have read this long essay is this. Is The Free Thought Project credible or incredible? Are they a journalistic agency or not?

Hopefully, you will agree with my assessment that they are an incredible source. Their long history of getting the most basic facts wrong, having a skewed pay-per-performance model, deliberately twisting information to make for a better or more enticing story, having false headlines that attract, plagiarizing from other, more respected news agencies, doing no real reporting whatsoever, hiring writers with questionable associations, and allying themselves with other news agencies that also are completely incredible. To me, the answer is clear, they are not at all credible nor should be relied upon for any information.

In terms of whether TFTP is a journalistic agency or not, I would refer again to the code of ethics contained within the Society of Professional Journalists. As mentioned previously, the code is a list of ethical qualities that all journalists should abide by and should try to follow in the conduct of their trade. Taking what was previously mentioned, we can see if TFTP abides by this code or not:

Does TFTP abide by the same high standards they expect of others? No.

Does TFTP plagiarize? Yes, at least once.

Does TFTP deliberately distort the facts or context of a story? Yes, prolifically.

Does TFTP avoid pandering to lucid curiosity? No.

Does TFTP provide updates to news stories? No.

Does TFTP label their commentary and distinguishes it from their reporting? Not in the slightest.

Does TFTP take care in editing content for factual inaccuracies, grammatical errors, or overall errors in reporting? No.

Quite simply, TFTP in no way abides by this code of ethics and flagrantly breaks this code multiple times. Throughout this essay, there are clear and abundant examples of TFTP failing to abide by this code. As well, I should point out, a common theme with TFTP is railing against the mainstream media for doing a lack of meaningful or accurate reporting. Ideally, every reporter should abide by SPJ’s Code of Ethics and one would reason, if TFTP dislikes the mainstream media and desires to be better than them, perhaps they would act more in accordance with this code of ethics. However, this is simply not the case and they are seemingly far worse than the majority of news agencies like the Associated Press, Reuters, or the Wall Street Journal.

Before I close, though, let’s go back to Agorist’s challenge for a moment. “Call us out. If you think its fake, try to prove that. They’re not going to be able to, which is why we’re not fake news,”.[75]

Before that, one must define what fake news is. Because I realize there are many differing thoughts on this via different news organizations and individual political biases, I have decided to take the definitions of fake news from probably one of the only institutions that most reasonable people can trust to be impartial and fair; academia. The University of Michigan defines fake news as being, “news stories that are false: the story is fabricated, with no verifiable facts, sources or quotes…these stories may be propaganda that is intentionally designed to mislead the reader, or may be designed as “clickbait” written for economic incentives (the writer profits on the number of people who click on the story)”.[76] Throughout this long essay, I have shown that TFTP has concocted stories that are based upon fabrications (the Alexandria Hill story in which Agorist claims that the father had medical marijuana for seizures being an example), deliberately create quotes from content that is unverifiable and may not even exist (the Angela Goodwin-Springfield story), and creates clickbait headlines (far too many examples to list). Going by the University of Michigan’s definition of what fake news is, The Free Thought Project absolutely meets the qualifications to be considered this.

Now, what does this make TFTP? Based on all the evidence, the only conclusion one can come to about The Free Thought Project is that their goal is not to actually inform the public or their readers. Their goal is not to inform their readers about instances of corruption or abuse of power within government, nor to report truthfully on these issues. Their goal is not to “foster the creation and expansion of liberty minded solutions,” but is instead designed to deliberately move the reader to a certain point of view. While there is nothing explicitly wrong with this, if that certain point of view is built upon very little evidence, misconstrued parts of what truly happened, misleading headlines and text, or outright dishonest practices, then that is not fostering any type of free thought, but is pushing toward a solution that is not built upon any true, solid, or real evidence.

In the end, there are two ways of classifying the site’s goals and intentions. In the least bad scenario, Matt Agorist and The Free Thought Project are engaging in pay-per-performance practices and utilizing shoddy reporting, dishonest journalistic practices, and push conspiracy theories because they realize that it sells and they can make big money off of doing little to no work. At the worst, they are engaging in a deliberate attempt to mislead the public and change the course of U.S. society and foreign and domestic policy, and change the outcomes of elections to assist in larger, more destructive and insidious plans by a foreign power like the Russian Federation. While this may sound farfetched, it is important to note Agorist and TFTP’s close professional (and seemingly personal) ties to RT, the site’s overt laudation of Vladimir Putin and disdain for many of his enemies, the pushing of conspiracies that are known to have been started or pushed heavily by Russians working on behalf of the Russian government (the Seth Rich and Pizzagate conspiracies being two prominent ones), the site’s approval of Syrian and Russian war crimes (the Syrian chemical attacks and the Russian shoot down of MH17) and attempted distortion of both of those incidents as false-flags or propaganda by the West, TFTP journalists being hired by RT and creating copycat RT sites, and the fact that the site has ties to another agency (GlobalResearch) that is being investigated for conducting information warfare on behalf of a foreign power. While this sounds almost too insane to believe, there is a lot here that points to something more devious about TFTP’s true goal. Personally, I believe there is some link between the site and the Russian government, in some way, shape, or form.

However, regardless of how one considers TFTP, it is undeniable that The Free Thought Project is nowhere near a credible source nor at all an accurate source for developments in foreign affairs, U.S. law, domestic policy, or any other sort of news at all.

[1]Jeremy Campbell, Erin Gutierrez, Lauren Rudeseal, Bils Savidge, & Matt Livingston, “For Fake’s Sake: How to spot fake news,” WUSA-9, Central Broadcasting System affiliate, Tegna Inc., published 28 April 2017, https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/for-fakes-sake/for-fakes-sake-how-to-spot-fake-news/65-435713516.

[2]Ibid.

[3]Michael Blanding, “Where Does Journalism End and Activism Begin?,” Nieman Reports Vol. 73, No. 1 (2019): p. 15, https://niemanreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Nieman-Winter-2019-web.pdf.

[4]Ibid.

[5]“SPJ Code of Ethics,” Society of Professional Journalism, last updated 06 September 2014, https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp.

[6]Campbell, Gutierrez, Rudeseal, Savidge, & Livingston, “For Fake’s Sake: How to spot fake news,” WUSA-9, published 28 April 2017, https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/for-fakes-sake/for-fakes-sake-how-to-spot-fake-news/65-435713516.

[7]“About Us,” The Free Thought Project, Free Thought Project, LLC., https://thefreethoughtproject.com/about-us/.

[8]Matt Agorist, “50 Police Officers Arrested During Massive Child Porn Sting,” The Free Thought Project, Free Thought Project, LLC., published 31 July 2012, https://thefreethoughtproject.com/50-police-officers-arrested-child-porn-raids/.

[9]“Free Thought LLC,” Open Corporates, Chrinon Ltd., last updated 12 March 2020, https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_la/41328810K.

[10]Ben Frampton, “Clickbait: The changing face of online journalism,” BBC News, British Broadcasting Corporation, published 14 September 2015, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-34213693.

[11]Salvador Rodriguez, “Facebook removes 559 pages and ahead of U.S. midterms for spreading news stories using ‘coordinated inauthentic behavior’,” CNBC, NBCUniversal, published 11 October 2018, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/11/facebook-removes-559-inauthentic-pages-ahead-of-us-midterms.html.

[12]The Free Thought Project, “’Like a Death Blow’: Facebook, Twitter Purge Destroys Free Speech, Tries to Kill Independent Media,” The Free Thought Project, Free Thought Project, LLC., published 14 October 2018, https://thefreethoughtproject.com/like-a-death-blow-facebook/.

[13]John Vibes, “Flint Residents Told That Their Children Could Be Taken Away If They Don’t Pay For City’s Poison Water,” The Free Thought Project, Free Thought Project, LLC., published 24 January 2016, https://thefreethoughtproject.com/flint-residents-told-children-pay-citys-poison-water/.

[14]Kim Lacapria, “Flint Residents Told That Their Children Could Be Taken Away If They Don’t Pay for City’s Poisoned Water?,” Fact Checks, Snopes, Snopes Media Group, Inc., published 26 January 2016, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/flint-water-crisis-cps/.

[15]Ibid.

[16]Ibid.

[17]Ibid.

[18]Matt Agorist, “Bill Grants Churches The Power To Make ‘Soldiers of God’ Who Can Legally Kill Citizens Like Cops,” The Free Thought Project, Free Thought Project, LLC., published 30 March 2016, https://thefreethoughtproject.com/bill-grants-churches-power-soldiers-god-legally-kill-citizens-cops/.

[19]Kim Lacapria, “Mississippi Bill Grants Churches ‘Lethal Force’ Powers,” Fact Checks, Snopes, Snopes Media Group, Inc., published 06 April 2016, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mississippi-bill-churches-lethal/.

[20]Matt Agorist, “Millions Of Muslims March Against ISIS During Pilgrimage And Mainstream Media Completely Ignores It,” The Free Thought Project, Free Thought Project, LLC., published 28 November 2016, https://thefreethoughtproject.com/20-million-muslims-march-against-isis/.

[21]Dan Evon, “Millions of Muslims March Against the Islamic State?,” Fact Checks, Snopes, Snopes Media Group, Inc., published 29 November 2016, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/millions-of-muslims-marched-against-the-islamic-state/.

[22]Matt Agorist, “Judge Rules Government Can Ban Vegetable Gardens Because They’re ‘Ugly’,” The Free Thought Project, Free Thought Project, LLC., published 01 September 2016, http://thefreethoughtproject.com/judge-rules-govt-ban-vegetable-gardens/.

[23]David Ovalle, “Court upholds Miami Shores ban on veggie gardens,” The Miami Herald, The McClatchy Company, published 25 August 2016, https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-shores/article97915197.html.

[24]Agorist, “Judge Rules Government Can Ban Vegetable Gardens Because They’re ‘Ugly’,” The Free Thought Project.

[25]“Couple Sues After Town Bans Front-Yard Gardens,” WFOR-TV, CBS Television Stations, Inc., published 08 June 2016, https://miami.cbslocal.com/2016/06/08/couple-sues-after-town-bans-front-yard-gardens/.

[26]Kim Lacapria, “Judge Rules the Government Can Ban Vegetable Gardens,” Fact Checks, Snopes, Snopes Media Group, Inc., published 16 September 2016, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/judge-bans-vegetable-gardens/.

[27]Rachel Blevins, “In Just The Last Two Weeks, Dozens of Children In Iowa Have Vanished,” The Free Thought Project, Free Thought Project, LLC., updated 27 July 2018, https://thefreethoughtproject.com/in-just-the-last-two-weeks-dozens-of-children-in-iowa-have-vanished/.

[28]Brian Tabick, “Update: Iowa DPS Says Number of Missing Persons Recently is ‘In Line’ with Historical Numbers,” KIMT-3, CBS-affiliate, Allen Media Broadcasting, published 26 July 2018, updated 27 July 2018, https://www.kimt.com/content/news/Iowa-DPS-48-people-missing-in-Iowa-in-last-10-days-489264291.html.

[29]Alex Kasprak, “Has Iowa Seen an Alarming Increase in ‘Vanishing Children’ This Summer?,” Fact Checks, Snopes, Snopes Media Group, Inc., published 30 July 2018, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/iowa-missing-children-summer/.

[30]Blevins, “In Just The Last Two Weeks, Dozens of Children In Iowa Have Vanished,” The Free Thought Project.

[31]Matt Agorist, “As Snopes ‘Debunks’ Child Trafficking Camp, 160 Kids As Young As 3 Rescued In Georgia,” The Free Thought Project, Free Thought Project, LLC., updated 07 June 2018, https://thefreethoughtproject.com/trafficking-snopes-debunks-kids-rescued-georgia/.

[32]Brooke Binkowski, “Did Snopes.com Ignore a Huge Child Trafficking Bust in Arizona?,” Fact Checks, Snopes, Snopes Media Group, Inc., published 11 June 2018, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/did-we-ignore-huge-trafficking-bust/.

[33]Matt Agorist, “State Requires Citizens To Pay For ‘Stargazing Permit’ To View Night Sky In Certain Public Parks,” The Free Thought Project, Free Thought Project, LLC., published 24 January 2018, https://thefreethoughtproject.com/state-forces-citizens-to-obtain-a-stargazing-permit-to-view-the-night-sky-yes-really/.

[34]Jill Terreri Ramos, “State Forces Citizens to Pay for ‘Stargazing Permit’ to View Night Sky in Public Parks,” PolitiFact, The Poynter Institute, published 09 February 2020, https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/09/free-thought-project/new-yorks-longtime-stargazing-permit-draws-new-att/.

[35]Agorist, “State Requires Citizens To Pay For ‘Stargazing Permit’ To View Night Sky In Certain Public Parks,” The Free Thought Project.

[36]Matt Agorist, “Exclusive: Stomach-Turning Video Catches Cops Abusing Kitten, Spitting Inside, Destroying Property,” The Free Thought Project, Free Thought Project, LLC., published 05 February 2020, https://thefreethoughtproject.com/exclusive-stomach-turning-video-catches-cops-abusing-kitten-spitting-inside-destroying-property/.

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[38]Matt Agorist, “School Cops Arrested For Allegedly Raping Child He Was Tasked With ‘Protecting’,” The Free Thought Project, Free Thought Project, LLC., published 02 December 2019, https://thefreethoughtproject.com/school-cop-arrested-sexual-assault-child/.

[39]“Charges: Clearwater County Sheriff’s Deputy Neil Dolan Sexually Assaulted Teen While Working At High School,” WCCO-TV, CBS Television Stations, Columbia Broadcasting Systems (CBS), published 21 November 2019, https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2019/11/21/charges-clearwater-county-sheriffs-deputy-neil-dolan-sexually-assaulted-teen-while-working-at-high-school/.

[40]Jack Burns, “Watch: Cops Detain And Harass Man For Allegedly Withdrawing $40,000 From His Bank,” The Free Thought Project, Free Thought Project, LLC., published 30 March 2020, https://thefreethoughtproject.com/watch-cops-detain-and-harass-man-for-allegedly-withdrawing-40000-from-his-bank/.

[41]SSTX9, Crawfordsville Indiana City Police Harassment, Online Video, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9MFzgLiWe4&feature=emb_title.

[42]Brian Joseph, “The Brief Life and Private Death of Alexandria Hill,” Mother Jones, Foundation for National Progress, published 26 February 2016, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/privatized-foster-care-mentor/.

[43]Matt Agorist, “2-Year-Old Taken From Parents For Using Medical Marijuana, Murdered In Foster Care,” The Free Thought Project, Free Thought Project, LLC., published 04 March 2020, https://thefreethoughtproject.com/foster-care-marijuana-murdered/.

[44]Robert Franklin, “Sherill Small Sentenced To Life In Prison In Death Of Toddler,” National Parents Organization, National Parents Organization, published 06 November 2014, https://nationalparentsorganization.org/blog/22030-sherrill-small-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-in-death-of-toddler.

[45]Jake Walker, “Woman convicted in foster child’s death dies,” The Eagle, Lee BMH Corporation, published 17 December 2016, https://www.theeagle.com/news/local/woman-convicted-in-foster-child-s-death-dies/article_d0e37fc5-1158-51e2-b852-70ef5684097a.html.

[46]Agorist, “2-Year-Old Taken From Parents For Using Medical Marijuana, Murdered In Foster Care,” The Free Thought Project.

[47]David Patrikarakos, War in 140 Characters: How Social Media is Reshaping Conflict in the Twenty-First Century (New York, NY: Basic Books, Hachette Book Group, 2017), p. 137-138.

[48]Matt Agorist, “Michigan Cop Not Fired After KKK Application, Memorabilia Found In His Home,” The Free Thought Project, Free Thought Project, LLC., published 10 August 2019, https://thefreethoughtproject.com/cop-not-fired-kkk-memorabilia/.

[49]Janelle Griffith, “Michigan police officer who had KKK memorabilia in his home is fired,” NBC News, NBCUniversal, National Broadcasting Company, published 12 September 2019, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/michigan-police-officer-who-had-kkk-memorabilia-home-fired-n1053361.

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[53]Muriel Pearson, Spencer Wilking, & Lauren Effron, “Survivors of 1993 Waco siege describe what happened in fire that ended the 51-day standoff,” ABC News, American Broadcasting Company, published 03 January 2018,https://abcnews.go.com/US/survivors-1993-waco-siege-describe-happened-fire-ended/story?id=52034435.

[54]Matt Agorist, “Never Forget: The US Gov’t Carried Out The Largest Church Massacre – 26 Years Ago, In Texas,” The Free Thought Project, Free Thought Project, LLC., published 08 November 2017, https://thefreethoughtproject.com/completely-forgotten-deadliest-church-massacre-us-history-waco/.

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[56]Danforth Report, p. 09, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Danforthreport-final.pdf.

[57]Claire Bernish, “27 Years Ago Today The Federal Govt Changed Its Rules To Launch A Sniper Attack On Off-Grid Family,” The Free Thought Project, Free Thought Project, LLC., published 21 August 2017, https://thefreethoughtproject.com/27-years-ruby-ridge/.

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[60]Claire Bernish, “50 Years Ago Today, The US Slaughtered 500 Unarmed Men, Women, & Children,” The Free Thought Project, Free Thought Project, LLC., published 16 March 2017, https://thefreethoughtproject.com/us-troops-slaughtered-500-my-lai/.

[61]Howard Jones, My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017), p. 01.

[62]Claire Bernish, “Never Forget, 52 Years Ago The US Slaughtered 500 Unarmed Men, Women, and Children,” The Free Thought Project.

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