"Hopefully You Will Doe Tragically," Blaise Gomez v. Joel Stern & Yeshiva World News

Who's responsible for the dumb BS people post on Facebook? And the real reason some in the Satmar community are out to get News 12's local reporter.

I mentioned the other day that News 12’s Blaise Gomez sued Confidential Assistant to the Mayor of South Blooming Grove, Joel Stern, for defamation. The case reminds me a lot of that old Esurance commercial where the grandmother completely misunderstands how Facebook works.

In the case of today’s newsletter, that grandmother is Mr. Joel Stern and Mr. Yehuda Eckstein, the founder of Yeshiva World News.

Since Stern is the de facto Mayor of South Blooming Grove, it’s worth taking some time today to discuss the lawsuit. Sadly, this lawsuit was dismissed because it’s virtually impossible to prove defamation when it’s coming out of the mouth of a public official. (They have near absolute immunity on their speech.)

Although … I’d argue Mr. Stern’s pattern of criminal behavior, in addition to the feelings of hostility toward Mrs. Gomez from some in the Haredi community — as Mr. Eckstein so helpfully highlighted at Yeshiva World News — may meet that high standard.

But again, I’m not (yet) a lawyer.

And, to answer your question, no. I am unsure of whether or not Mr. Yehuda Eckstein is related to Legislative Aide to the Mayor of South Blooming Grove, Yitzchok (aka Isaac) Eckstein.

Although, much to the chagrin of one woman I dated — if you’re a European Jew like me, you are very likely to be related to each other, albeit distantly according to a biology professor at Columbia University.

Now, I know a lot of you don’t know this, but I was (am?) a world renown expert when it comes to social media. St. Martin’s Press put out my book in 2012, it was published in Chinese, Russian, Polish, and Spanish editions, I’ve traveled around the world to speak on this subject, and I’ve advised major companies about it.

So, I am uniquely qualified to talk about this lawsuit, because it rests on something incredibly stupid:

Who’s responsible for the dumb shit people say on Facebook?

With Malice Toward All, With Charity Toward None

Joel M. Stern, as he has done in countless forums and to various parties since coming to South Blooming Grove, accused Mrs. Gomez of anti-semitism by association and attacked her credibility as a journalist.

In almost every instance I’ve investigated, when Mr. Stern is speaking about someone that is in his way, he is always bashing them. 

For example:

-In emails to Town Supervisor Jeroleman in Blooming Grove, Stern denigrates whoever was responsible for negotiating the Town garbage contract with Marangi as part of his illegal activities to create a second garbage district in the Village. 

-In the United Jewish Community newsletter, Stern denigrates everyone speaking out about Clovewood, referring to them as bigots and anti-semites. 

-In The South Blooming Grove Report, the previous Village Board is constantly blamed for all the ills currently facing the Village.

And in Blaise’s case, Stern asserts, correctly, that people said anti-semitic stuff on her Facebook page.

This is absolutely true. And those people, who said those antisemitic things, are garbage people who should be launched into the sun at the first opportunity to do so.

But.

I bet you, if you were to go to any large enough Facebook Page or group, you’d find someone saying weird, anti-semitic bullshit. You would NOT have to look too hard to do this. There are at least two presidential candidates doing it now as we speak.

I mean, that’s basically what Twitter is now too: A bunch of white supremacists posting weird, often anti-semitic bullshit about their latest conspiracy theory, or worse, about Bitcoin.

It’s a law similar to Godwin’s Law. Godwin’s Law states that as an online discussion goes on, someone will eventually be called or referred to as a Nazi.

This, by the way, is why you have to be a paying subscriber to The Monroe Gazette to leave comments. That paid barrier prevents antisemites, trolls, and other assorted weirdos from participating in the discussion.

To be clear: I’m not excusing the antisemitic bullshit that appears online. I’m just saying it’s so prevalent that anyone can and will easily encounter it.

So. The thing is, if you’re a public figure, and you’re getting dozens and dozens of stupid, racist, bigoted comments a day on your posts, good luck trying to moderate your Facebook Page!

Moderating these things is a full time job. Believe me. I’ve been hired and well compensated to do exactly that.

It’s not easy.

According to Stern’s affidavit, this lack of moderation made Blaise unprofessional as a journalist in his eyes.

But, at its most basic level, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 says publishers are not responsible for comments left by others online. That’s why it’s so hard to sue Facebook.

It also means that, if you’re Blaise Gomez and have a professional Facebook page that you manage, you’re not responsible for what is posted by others on that page.

If you’re not responsible, you’re also not obligated to monitor these things either.

And if you work full time, have kids, and a social life, when exactly are you supposed to moderate thousands of new comments received each week on your Page?

No, really. I want an answer to this.

Because it’s easy to say someone should be doing that. And it’s easy to attack someone for things that get posted by others, but legally that person is NOT responsible and does not have an obligation to clean up the comments.

If anything, there’s an undue financial burden created for public figures to monitor and manage their social media presence. (Did you ever notice how so many “influencers” are already wealthy in some other way before they got started posting online?)

So, attacking someone for stuff that gets posted by idiots is a non-starter. And it should have been a non-starter for the Judge and the attorneys involved in this case.

Mr. Stern can believe whatever he wants, but factually, what gets posted on Blaise Gomez’s Facebook is irrelevant. She’s not responsible for it. She doesn’t engage with it, and she doesn’t say anything antisemitic or offensive anywhere on the Page.

And We Haven’t Even Talked Sock Puppets Yet

This is before we get into the literal hundreds of millions of fake accounts Facebook deletes every quarter. Yes. Quarter. In the last quarter of 2023, there were 691 million fake accounts deleted by Facebook.

That is more accounts than there are people alive in the United States right now.

And among those fake accounts are sock puppet accounts, which became a nationally recognized threat during the 2016 presidential election, as detailed in The Mueller Report.

Sock puppets are fake accounts that are used by bad actors to stir up trouble. They are a popular tactic used by the wealthy to sway public opinion or “prove” their claims of antisemitism by posting that anti-semitic content themselves.

You better believe hanhallah has utilized this exact tactic.

(Remember: hanhallah is a term used by members of the Satmar community to derisively refer to the leadership class of that community behind their back. It’s in that same spirit that I use the term.)

I would bet my life that, if I had the time to dig through Blaise Gomez’s Facebook Page, I’d fine a whole lot of sock puppets.

That means there’s a question the court probably should have considered, which is how many of those hateful comments were left by bad actors to “prove” that Mrs. Gomez is “harboring antisemitism” as Mr. Stern asserted.

So, again, I ask you:

Unless you’re wealthy like Mr. Stern’s friends at Keen Equities LLC, how are you supposed to moderate pages, groups, and other channels that get thousands of new comments each week?

And how too, are you to monitor, let alone be able to identify, sock puppets and other fake accounts piloted by people looking to stir shit up?

And in the case of Mrs. Gomez, she has A LOT of enemies in the Haredi community for reasons I’m about to explain.

So the simple answer, again, is that you can’t.

But that’s what this entire case depended on: The Facebook comments and their lack of moderation, which gave Mr. Stern cover to defend himself.

Comments cherry picked by Yeshiva World News’s Yehuda Eckstein, and Joel Stern, that were made by hateful dumbasses who may or may not be actual people.

“Unapologetically Biased Against Hasidic Jews”

First, Blaise, please charge your phone. That 1% low battery indicator is giving me anxiety.

Now.

Let’s take a look at the second claim made by Yeshiva World News, its editor Mr. Yehuda Ekstein, and echoed by Mr. Joel Stern.

The claim is that Blaise Gomez is somehow “unapologetically biased against Hasidic Jews” in her reporting because she doesn’t report “good news” about the community.

Uh, for one thing, probably because you don’t bother sharing the good news with her to cover.

It’s worth asking how many press releases Mr. Stern’s United Jewish Community organization sent to News 12 in 2023. I bet it wasn’t many!

(Go ahead Mr. Stern, prove me wrong.)

For another, this claim rests on the idea that journalists are supposed to report as much good news as bad news.

That’s not how journalism works.

It’s never how journalism worked.

Journalism, when done right, afflicts the comfortable and comforts the afflicted.

Unless you’re the corporate media, in which case, you try VERY HARD not to afflict the comfortable too much. Especially if they pay for all your advertising …

There are few, if any, journalists left who are like, “what’s awesome that I can talk about today?”

Too many of us are overworked, underpaid, forced to hit a quota of some kind, and forced to produce work that algorithms like.

Those are facts. I don’t like it. You probably don’t like it. But that is how the media works in the 21st Century.

Unfortunately, for everyone, News 12 is owned by a large corporation.

And large corporations have zero interest in reporting good news. That’s not to say they don’t, but it’s rare and often not given anywhere near the kind of coverage “bad” news gets.

The other thing is that, people think reporters at corporate media outlets pick their stories. But more often than not, they have to pitch the story, and an editor has to approve it before they can cover it.

If the editor doesn’t approve it? You can’t cover that story.

Unless you’re like me and you want to do it for free. (Although, now is a good time to thank those of you who have become paying subscribers to The Monroe Gazette.)

So.

“Why don’t you report good news about the community?!” is a bullshit claim.

As is, “You only report negative stories because you’re antisemitic / anti-hassidic”

The real question you should be asking is:

Why is Mr. Stern and Mr. Yehuda Eckstein out to make Blaise Gomez look bad?

2016: Hanhallah’s No Good, Very Bad Year

The Spring of 2016 was a particularly rough time for hanhallah.

Yeshiva World News claims that Blaise Gomez is “a well-known thorn in the Jewish community and has long run around trying to find negative stories to report about them. Many of her stories prompt hundreds of antisemitic comments on her social media platforms and make their way around actual hate outlets in upstate New York.”

First, prove it dude.

Yeshiva World News claims to be a journalistic enterprise, so the burden of proof is on the person making the claim. Show me where these hate outlets are. Show me how Blaise is a”well-known thorn in the Jewish community.”

Second, and to that point, Yeshiva World News. has only ever published two articles, three years apart, about Blaise Gomez.

That’s right. Two.

The one I linked to above, and the one showing off Joel Stern’s video. That’s it. So “a well-known thorn in the Jewish community” has only warranted one blog post before Stern’s video?

Really? Just one post? You’d think an alleged antisemitic TV reporter would warrant WAY more coverage than that.

Bro, Why You Mad?

Here’s why:

On March 12th, 2016, FBI agents raided two locations in Kiryas Joel. The feds were looking into the misappropriation of telecommunication funds under the Federal E-Rate program. This money is meant to go to underprivileged school districts for computers and Internet access.

Blaise Gomez reported on these raids.

Not long after, on March 23rd, 2016, the FBI conducted raids in Monsey and other locations in Rockland County. Three Rockland based businesses received Federal E-Rate money to install the computers and internet access for the yeshivas in KJ and elsewhere.

Communication Date & Security Inc. in Spring Valley, claimed to provide $1.6M in services to United Talmudical Academy in Kiryas Joel and Yeshiva Vitnitz in Monsey. Prime Security & Communications Inc. and Pincus Alarm & Telephone claimed to provide a combined $1M in services to Yeshiva Vitznitz.

Blaise again reported on these raids.

A day after the FBI raids, on March 24th, 2016, a dummy depicting a black man was seen hanging from a building in Spring Valley.

Blaise posted about this on Facebook, and noted that it was part of the Purim tradition depicting the hanging of Haman.

However, this is not correct, as only some in the Haredi community do the whole effigy thing. So it’s not quite a Purim tradition.

The regional director of the NAACP noted that this was the second time in as many years that a black doll was hung in this manner.

After Purim had ended, another doll — this one white — was found hanging in Spring Valley. Most likely as a response to the FBI raids. This too received news coverage by Blaise.

On May 3rd, 2016, hidden camera footage from a United Talmudical Academy yeshiva circulated on WhatsApp revealing sexual abuse by a rabbi of an underage boy:

This video was circulated by a staffer at the school, and concerned families in the Haredi community then shared the video with … Yes. News 12’s Blaise Gomez.

(An important point: There are three factions in Kiryas Joel/Palm Tree. They do not often get along with each other, if at all. So this footage happened to come from one of those dissident groups, which angered the Grand Rebbe, Aaron Teitelbaum and probably put Blaise in hanhallah’s crosshairs.)

And not long after, Blaise reported on the death of Itzchak Rosenberg, who admitted to working with the Gambino crime family.

After reporting on this story, Blaise starts receiving death threats.

Can’t imagine why Yeshiva World News would then be so quick to run Mr. Stern’s video and say things like, ““a well-known thorn in the Jewish community and has long run around trying to find negative stories to report about them.”

Sure sounds like the legal standard of actual malice to me.

But that’s not all.

On May 22nd, 2016, two Change.org petitions are created. Only one of them is mentioned in a sworn affidavit for the attorney representing Yeshiva World News in Blaise’s lawsuit against Joel Stern.

It’s not clear which petition was created first, but they appeared on the same day. 

One Change.org petition, founded by someone using the screen name, “Stop The Hate Against Jews” and signed by 493 people, said, “Blaise Gomez is a reporter for the news12hv news agency. But she's reporting the news with an unbelievable bias against Jews. So we are asking News12hv "please make sure these bias reporting should come to an end. Our question to news12 is How long will News12HV tolerate BlaiseGomez12 's extreme hate & blatant bias v Hasidic Jews?????”

The other Change.org petition, founded by Robin Monroe, was signed by 975 people and said, “Stop the suppression of journalism coming out of Kiryas Joel, which now includes death threats against a reporter. Blaise Gomez, keep up the good work! 

Can you guess which Change.org petition was mentioned in the sworn affidavit by Yeshiva World News’s attorney, Marcy Grace W. Metcalfe?

Hint: It wasn’t the one with more signatures.

And no, while helpfully showing the court one petition, Mrs. Metcalfe did NOT show the court that second petition, even though it was created on the same day and had more signatures.

Convenient.

Also weighing in on the dueling Change.org petitions was Shmarya Rosenberg. Shmarya was the former reporter who operated FailedMessiah. His work is also archived over at LostMessiah now. Said Rosenberg at the time,

“When reporting on the burial of our dearly departed Itzchak Rosenberg (zl) Ms. Gomez decided to, well, report the truth, not the whitewashed secrets the community and its members have come to believe. After all, he may have been naked, or not. He may have been on vacation, or not, etc. etc. But, he was connected to some pretty shade characters and was nonetheless being hailed the hero."

Blaize Gomez was criticized and, of course, called a bigot. Kiryas Joel Headquarters admonished Gomez because they are afraid of where her investigation and stories will lead. In our view, they should be. We think that the path down which she is walking will lead to some pretty dark places within the communities she is investigating. We firmly believe that Blaize Gomez should be commended for finally having the chutzpah to shed light  some on the dirty (very dirty) secrets enshrouded by the Kiryas Joel community, for one. We are inspired by her courage.”

Now, Metcalfe, in Exhibit F that was submitted to the Orange County Clerk’s office cherry picked screenshots to show the ones left by the hateful idiots we all encounter on Facebook.

But those weren’t all the comments that were left.

There were positive ones as well, appreciating Blaise asking a government employee, Mr. Stern, tough questions that he clearly had no interest in answering, and as I’ve laid out here on The Monroe Gazette, a government employee who is also engaged in a criminal conspiracy.

I think Blaise had a stronger case than anyone realized.

I also hope that, when the residents of South Blooming Grove start to file lawsuits of their own, they won’t let hanhallah get away with some of the tactics used on Blaise in her lawsuit.