There are some issues with Duin\u2019s piece, but please read it first if you haven\u2019t already before continuing so you can experience your own reactions before reading ours.<\/p>\n\n\n
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<\/a>Perhaps the biggest thing to acknowledge is that as nice as it is to get the name recognition and prestige of Newsweek<\/em> in a story alerting people to how The Satanic Temple is targeting critics with an expensive lawsuit, Newsweek <\/em>at this point has little continuity with the glossy prestige publication founded in 1933.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Republic<\/em> journalist Alex Shephard even dubbed it a \u201czombie magazine\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n Writing in The Columbia Journalism Review last year, Daniel Tovrov depicted Newsweek, once one of America\u2019s most distinguished magazines, as a shell of its former self. All that was left was clickbait, op-eds from the likes of Nigel Farage and Newt Gingrich, and a general sense of drift. \u201cNobody I spoke to for this article had a sense of why Newsweek exists,\u201d Tovrov wrote. \u201cWhile the name Newsweek still carries a certain authority\u200a\u2014\u200aremnants of its status as a legacy outlet\u200a\u2014\u200aand the magazine can still bag an impressive interview now and then, it serves an opaque purpose in the media landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last week, Newsweek suggested one possible purpose: The legitimization of narratives straight out of the right-wing fever swamps. An op-ed written by John Eastman, a conservative lawyer and founding director of the Claremont Institute\u2019s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, coyly suggested that Kamala Harris, who was born in California, may not be eligible to serve as vice president because her parents were immigrants.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The publication of Eastman\u2019s op-ed says a great deal about the state of Newsweek\u2019s opinion section, which has become a clearinghouse for right-wing nonsense. But it also points to a larger crisis in journalism itself: The rise of the zombie publication, whose former legitimacy is used to launder extreme and conspiratorial ideas.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Again, feel free to read that article in full, but as much of a red flag as that should be, publications don\u2019t produce stories on their own. In this case, Julia Duin is the person conducting interviews and tying the information together, so it\u2019s worth looking at her background, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It won\u2019t be a surprise that the former religion editor for The Washington Times<\/em> is further to the right than we are. But that would be true of most reporters, and she also seems to have been fired in retaliation<\/a> for criticizing that employer, a much more courageous act than most reporters would ever do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Point being, after decades as a working reporter for the Houston Chronicle<\/em>, Washington Post<\/em>, Wall Street Journal<\/em>, and others, we felt Duin personally brought more credibility to the subject than necessarily the masthead she\u2019d publish under.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That said, this sort of background well explains the assumptions and emphasis baked into this sentence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n While digging up facts for their defense, they\u2019ve run into other aggrieved Satanists around the country who have a litany of complaints about the organization, including allegations of sexually deviant gatherings <\/strong>that, according to one TST memo, allow for \u201corgies, BDSM, fetish balls\u2026 ritual flogging, live ritual sex, burlesque show.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n We can\u2019t speak to what (presumably) Scott Malphas actually said to Duin on this topic, but it seems probable that this is a function of the biases of Duin\u2019s background and\/or the publication\u2019s editors than Malphas\u2019 actual words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In any case, we wouldn\u2019t use the phrase \u201csexual deviancy\u201d to describe what\u2019s at issue there. The issue isn\u2019t \u201cdeviance\u201d or \u201cnormativity\u201d but power structures and consent\u200a\u2014\u200aor more precisely lack thereof. Clearly, given that one of the people being sued is part of their own burlesque co-op and we\u2019re self-described queers. TST members engaging in BDSM really isn\u2019t an issue or concern, but doing so within the context of<\/em> and explicitly endorsed by<\/em> a rigidly hierarchical organization ultimately controlled by two people and their deputies?<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is ultimately no way to write formal guidelines<\/a> that solve this power dynamic because the people responsible for enforcing the rules are the same ones who have total immunity from being held accountable if they break any of those rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, we love consent. Consent is fabulous. But \u201csexually deviant\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n All right, so that perspective and set of priors is the background you need to understand while reading the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But also, in a sad way, it\u2019s a contrast to so many other more liberal media outlets just re-writing TST\u2019s press releases and spending more time coming up with hell-related puns than fact-checking those press releases\u2019 claims. Unfortunately, those newsrooms are filled with people who want <\/em>to believe The Satanic Temple\u2019s promises can succeed, so they\u2019re inclined to write the lazy \u201cman bites dog\u201d story that TST presents to them (\u201cSatanists do good thing\u201d) with no further skepticism or journalistic curiosity. TST quite cleverly provides a formulaic structure that lets liberal media check all the boxes of \u201cobjectivity\u201d before filing a straight news story; this simultaneously provides right right-wing media the chum to go into a frenzy of rage-reacting. Neither are doing real journalism to move beyond TST\u2019s framing while bringing TST more attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All that said, let\u2019s address some actual factual errors that made it into Duin\u2019s story. Unlike the former point-of-view issue, these may even eventually be corrected in the Web edition because they\u2019re pretty straightforward. Regardless, they are not fatal to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Calavera has since declared bankruptcy, and the others say the lawsuit is eating them alive financially.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The first one is our fault and a miscommunication from us to the reporter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joshua Calavera has not officially filed for bankruptcy yet, and the federal court will have to be updated when he does, assuming he can\u2019t wait till after the case has concluded, as he plans to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ve received a little more than $20,000 in donations from the public, but even collectively, we did not have $60,000 just sitting around to be spent, so this has required our savings plus some to keep going. In addition to Calavera\u2019s situation, another of us is still $9,000 in debt repaying a bank loan to keep paying lawyer bills, so the sentiment expressed in that sentence remains correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, \u201cI\u2019m going to\u201d and \u201cI have\u201d declared bankruptcy are two different things, and we should have described that more accurately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Johnson, a former Southern Baptist, says no one in the chapter actually prayed to Satan. \u201cThere are rituals that some people do but those aren\u2019t rituals invoking a higher power,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s more like externalizing your interior notions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n David A. Johnson is a habitual mumbler, but this was likely \u201cinterior emotions<\/strong>.\u201d Again, not that it changes the meaning too much here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen we started, there weren\u2019t any red flags,\u201d said Johnson. All four were aware that Greaves had some major baggage in his past; specifically an embarrassing podcast in 2002<\/strong> where he made anti-Semitic remarks. (Example : \u201cLike, I think it\u2019s okay to hate Jews if you hate them because they\u2019re Jewish and they wear a stupid fuckin\u2019 Frisbee on their head\u2026\u201d) Greaves later apologized for his comments.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Likely, this follows Joseph P. Laycock\u2019s account of the remarks, and it\u2019s natural for a reporter to defer to a professor who literally wrote the book on The Satanic Temple (Speak of the Devil<\/em>). Unfortunately, Laycock is wrong and didn\u2019t bother to investigate the context of those statements having come in a 24-hour Internet radio stream in 2003<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fact that it was a live Internet radio broadcast is actually somewhat critical to understanding the dynamic of the event, attempting to engage with callers while promoting the re-release of a 19th century, grotesquely bigoted proto-fascist manifesto that Greaves had illustrated<\/a>. It also involved Greaves repeatedly extolling the virtues of eugenics, the necessity of forcible sterilization based on IQ<\/a>, and congenially interviewing violent Neo-Nazis about how Social Darwinism was relevant to their white nationalist beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we have detailed<\/a>, Lucien Greaves\u2019 \u201capology\u201d for one antisemitic snippet of that stream, newly revealed to most people in 2018, ends up being disingenuous given the broader context, down to Greaves claiming to be younger than he really was at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, so far most news outlets in general have taken the apology at face value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What also nettled the Seattleites\u200a\u2014\u200aand many TST members nationwide\u200a\u2014\u200awas Greaves\u2019 decision in 2014<\/strong> to use attorney Mark Randazza<\/strong> to represent TST in the Twitter lawsuit<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The date seems to be a typo here because an earlier reference gets it right as happening in 2018<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Satanic Temple also did not use Marc<\/strong> Randazza in a lawsuit <\/em>at that point: rather confusingly, TST sought to fundraise $50,000<\/a> to merely file a complaint<\/strong><\/a> with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This issue seems to be ongoing, or at least we haven\u2019t been able to find the resolution yet, but when the major TST chapters broke away in 2018, Lucien Greaves tried to claim (as he does in this article) that Randazza was working pro bono, with no explanation what the $50,000 fundraiser was to be used for if that was so. Of course no explanation has ever been given for why they have used Randazza to write a letter to the state of Mississippi<\/a> threatening a lawsuit over their updated flag design; to file paperwork with the US Patent and Trademark Office<\/a>; or why TST added him to their team for a federal lawsuit against the city of Boston<\/a> over invocations when they already have their usual lawyer Matt Kezhaya working on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking of him:<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Kezhaya argues that the defendants can be held liable for making false statements whether or not the subject involves religion. \u201cThey said TST are literal Nazis. That is objectively false<\/strong>,\u201d he said, arguing that the judge erred in throwing out the defamation claim. He asked the court last Spring to reconsider the motion.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Speaking of things that are objectively false, lawyer Matt Kezhaya must be confused because he\u2019s handling so many other cases for The Satanic Temple right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At least, if TST is alleging we ever said \u201cTST are literal Nazis\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200aas opposed to quoting other former members<\/a>, existing news articles<\/a>, and collectives documenting TST\u2019s public ties to fascists<\/a>; linking to audio of Lucien Greaves\u2019 own words<\/a>; or linking to Lucien Greaves\u2019 own public post from 2016<\/a> explaining why he stood in solidarity with literal neo-Nazi August Sol Invictus\u200a\u2014\u200aTST probably should have remembered to include it in their evidence<\/a> submitted to the court. Otherwise a less charitable interpretation of Kezhaya\u2019s statement would be that he was lying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It would have been nice<\/em> for Duin to have asked a follow-up for Kezhaya to directly cite his accusation, because this is a knowable thing, but it\u2019s also understandable not to predict that lawyers will just make shit up or at least not to predict they\u2019ll speak so loosely to a reporter when they can\u2019t keep their case\u2019s facts straight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly, Kezhaya may indeed ask the court to reconsider the defamation claim at some point in the future to try to keep The Satanic Temple\u2019s SLAPP case against us going on, but that would be on appeal or in some other court. He could not<\/em> do so at this stage in the case because the judge dismissed that claim \u201cwith prejudice\u201d, meaning there was no opportunity to re-file.<\/p>\n\n\n The Court agrees with Defendants.\u00a0\u2026The Court may not resolve the defamation claim without delving into doctrinal matters. To determine whether Defendants\u2019 statements were defamatory, the Court or jury must inevitably determine that the statements were false. That would require the Court or jury to define the beliefs held by The Satanic Temple and to determine that ableism, misogyny, racism, fascism, and transphobia fall outside those beliefs.\u00a0\u2026 Court dismisses with prejudice.<\/p>\nRelevant portion of Federal District Judge Richard A. Jones\u2019 order dismissing<\/a> The Satanic Temple\u2019s case in February\u00a02021<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n So it would be nice to get a clarification since again, this is knowable and possible to arbitrate journalistically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n TST\u2019s brand is still under debate in Seattle. In June, the defendants requested the case be dismissed. Kezhaya, the TST lawyer, has asked the court to reconsider. He hopes to have an affirmative answer from the judge by early next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf they don\u2019t give us the stuff back and settle in terms we find acceptable, then there is no other option than a jury trial<\/strong>,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they did this on their own web page, we wouldn\u2019t be in a lawsuit right now. But they put it on our page<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Kezhaya saw this as an issue that needed to be quickly nipped in the bud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou can\u2019t steal someone\u2019s stuff<\/strong>,\u201d he told Newsweek<\/em>. \u201cYou can\u2019t hack Facebook pages <\/strong>and use those pages to cause harm to the owner<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n It seems notable that Kezhaya switches to saying \u201call of this stuff we\u2019ve been alleging is defamation would have been fine if only it wasn\u2019t on a place we claim we owned\u201d, but that\u2019s unlikely to ever be material outside of bitter chuckles between the co-defendants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To be clear, the judge just dismissed <\/em>the rest of The Satanic Temple\u2019s claims rather than dismissing them with prejudice<\/em>, so Kezhaya is right to be able to reference these other parts of the complaint as live issues since TST re-filed on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That being so, we\u2019ll point to our motion to dismiss detailing how TST went from claiming \u201cexceeding authority\u201d to completely reversing themselves and claiming we had no authority in order to allege \u201chacking\u201d after a judge tossed their first complaint, despite offering no new evidence to that effect. They have also kept claiming theft of Facebook pages despite the judge determining that Facebook owns Facebook pages once already (which TST admits Facebook also already told them).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, TST has had the former Washington State chapter page since May 2020, and that\u2019s the only thing they submitted evidence communicating about at all rather than just hitting a bunch of people with an expensive, frivolous lawsuit over straight off. Which seems like an important step to skip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"New](\"https:\/\/queersatanic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png\")
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