Jake Dodge

Laura, you list yourself on X as a reporter. Here’s what a reporter does. They call and find out what happened. I did. I called the firm representing Qatar that filed the report. They said a firm representative sent an unsolicited text message to Jack asking if a Human Events reporter could attend a briefing. No one from Human Events replied. That’s it. Your replies below add to the evidence of your inaccurate reporting and inaccurate understanding of FARA reports. You suggest you never had to disclose a reporting contact with a foreign source. Neither does Human Events nor Just the News. The law requires the foreign paid PR or lobbying firm to disclose any contact they initiate or receive from American journalists. I’ll almost certainly show up in the next FARA report by virtue of my call today to the PR firm to confirm. That does not mean I’m a paid agent of Qatar. Look at the tweets that have ensued since your reckless reporting. You have falsely led people into thinking news brands we own are paid agents of Qatar just because a firm made an unsolicited text message that went unanswered and then reported the effort on FARA as required by law.

Laura, this is a reckless series of posts worthy of Joe McCarthy. As our lawyers will soon make clear to you, your insinuation that JTN or any of its employees are engaged in a “money exchange” or a “pay and bribe” scheme with Qatar simply because they showed up in a FARA media contact report is demonstrably false and defamatory. Most times, a PR firm, lobbying firm or law firm working for a foreign power has a contact with an American media outlet it gets reported on a FARA report. Just the News has appeared in such reports for Qatar and Israel. Why? We once asked for comment on an Iran attack on Qatari energy assets. Another time we asked for an interview with a Qatari official — which we got — to confirm the Biden administration asked Qatar to restore Hamas’s operating headquarters in Doha after the October 7 attack. It was a tip we got from Israeli officials and American diplomats, and Qatar confirmed. You can read that here: justthenews.com/government/s… Hardly the stuff of jihadi terrorist propaganda or Qatari bribery. Right now American media are likely seeking Qatari comment from its PR firms on the Iran talks. Those likely will result in new entries on future FARA filings. It’s a basic requirement of journalism and fair comment, not a necessary sign of terrorist sympathies. You clearly don’t understand the purpose of these reports. You also deceptively trimmed the form to show just a FARA report of a text message to Jack seeking a meeting. Had you shown the more complete form to X readers they would see similar routine contacts with Fox News, The Daily Mail, Newsmax, CNN and NBC. These aren’t on their face sinister. They’re usually just efforts to secure updates on international news. They also reported a contact on the same page as Jack with Secretary Bessent. You deprived readers of that information. They can see the form below. Finally, you plastered my photo and the names of our brands on your X account with an insinuation we are bought and paid for by terrorist sympathizers, ironically, on the same day we broke a story exposing how Abdul El-Sayed campaigned inside Islamic mosques and centers whose clerics called America “Satan” and who prayed for “revenge” against Zionists. In other words we used our journalism to expose Islamist extremism, not enable it. In case, in your ignorance, you missed that story you can read it here. justthenews.com/politics-pol… I hope @elonmusk and @CommunityNotes correct your reckless inaccuracy. Either way, you will get a retraction request from our lawyers.