For a whiff of who's doing your news, take a gander at this idiocy from a vaunted member of the bluecheck-American community:

This @target manager Tori is not honoring the price of their items per massachusetts law pic.twitter.com/7IYMjCcutZ — David Leavitt (@David_Leavitt) January 17, 2020

I just had to call the police because @target Refused to sell me the toothbrush — David Leavitt (@David_Leavitt) January 17, 2020

I did not call 911. I called the business number for the police and told them it was not an emergency and they could take their time and explained the situation. — David Leavitt (@David_Leavitt) January 17, 2020

The police verified @target displayed the price of toothbrush for $0.01 The store manager Tori refused to sell me the toothbrush for displayed price. The police said I need to sue them and that they are making me a verified report take to court @BBBConnection @AskTarget — David Leavitt (@David_Leavitt) January 17, 2020

Corporations like @target are not above the law. The police officer told me they’d testify that they saw the price and that the manager wouldn’t sell me the item for the price listed. — David Leavitt (@David_Leavitt) January 17, 2020

I have not been able to afford to go to a dentist in over three years. So yes I wanted a good toothbrush and was thrilled to see such an amazing prize on an @OralB but @target refused to honor it and now I have to take them to court — David Leavitt (@David_Leavitt) January 17, 2020

Apparently, he mistook an inventory tag set up as a placeholder for an advertised price tag of $0.01 and intended to compel Target and its lowly manager to give him the $89.99 toothbrush for pretty much free. When he didn't get what he wanted, he doxxed the manager on his big-follower Twitter account and called the police, even though it's since been pointed out that he didn't even have the law on his side in his utterly unreasonable demand.

As they say, "journalism."

It went over like a lead balloon on Twitter:

It's a crowded field, but you've won dick of the week on twitter, you utter creep. — thebradfordfile™ (@thebradfordfile) January 17, 2020

...and word spread fast with headlines like this, this, and this:

Justice for 'Target Tori' After Reporter Trolls Store Manager on Twitter

Man Gets Dragged After He Admits to Calling Police Over Mispriced Toothbrush at Target

Twitchy has plenty here.

It wasn't just tweets, either; people put their money where their mouths were, shelling out $13,500 at last count on a $5,000 GoFundMe page set up on her behalf a mere 12 hours ago. The logic of it was to buy this Target employee a vacation to compensate her for the sheer hideousness of Leavitt's behavior.

What did we see here, really? This clown, who has a blue check by his name, puffs himself as an "award-winning" multi-media journalist (notice that photo composition, painstakingly put together on his first tweet) who's worked for bluecheck media names like CBS and Yahoo!, and has 215,000 Twitter followers, tried to pull rank on this lowly Target employee, using his power to fire her for not selling him an $89.99 toothbrush for one cent. That kind of nuclear tantrum comes off as extortionary, actually, and like a very bad customer, he seems to think Target will bend as a lot of them do just to get him out of there. Or else. They shouldn't, and the manager was right to tell him no. Yet he's so self-unaware that he actually believed that the public would rally around him and his toothbrush needs.

It's hardly the first instance of such behavior. The bluecheck class seems to view itself well above ordinary Americans and expects even retailers to bow to them no matter how ridiculous their demands. I've heard the worst stories about big-name bluechecks and their behavior around hotel accommodations, for one. Leavitt's tantrum is redolent of the "Dear Diary" whining of CNN blowhard Jim Acosta, who went into a meltdown when he was rebuked for interrupting others at a White House press conference and then later complained that nobody was buying his book and President Trump refused to call on him at press conferences, depriving him of his moment in the spotlight. So much for journalism, once upon a time, being about the public interest. With bluechecks like these, anything deemed public interest is about private interest, personal ailments, and big wounded egos.

Any questions as to why the public despises the press?

Apparently, this kind of behavior is legion. And it's repelling the public. It's almost as if a watershed has been hit with this one. The bluecheck privilege thing is out of control.

Leavitt also is one hell of a prevaricator and hypocrite, a pretty unseemly thing for someone whose purported job is to report the truth. In response to his "too much information" about his dental care, this came up.

The material is very, very rich on this guy, who apparently has a long history of using his bluecheck status to extract concessions from retailers using his big Twitter megaphone following as leverage. Maybe it's time to take away the blue checks.

Image credit: Twitter screen shot.