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James Gordon Meek

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This article is about American journalist. For other people named James Meek, see James Meek (disambiguation).

James Gordon Meek
Born1968 (age 55–56)
OccupationJournalist
CitizenshipAmerican
SpouseMarried Sept 15 2001[1]

James Gordon Meek (born 1968) is a former ABC News senior producer and senior counter-terrorism advisor to the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security[2][3] until his 2023 arrest by the FBI on a charge related to sexual abuse material of children "from infancy".[4][5][6][7][8] Two further charges were laid March 30 2023.

Career

In 1990, Meek had crossed the Darien Gap from Panama into Colombia.[9] Meek served as the drummer in the Virginia Teenbeat rock band "Scaley Andrew and the Lizards from Hell" (1990-2014) fronted by Andrew Beaujon of the Eggs who later served as senior editor of the Washingtonian magazine.[10][11][12] Meek and Beaujon appeared in the Butch Willis biopic documentary "Amateur on Plastic".[13]

Meek initially wrote political articles for the CD-ROM Magazine "Blender", which offered him accreditation with the Periodical Press Galleries in 1995.[14][15] Meek and his partner Mike Rosenberg used the Gridlock webzine to apply for accreditation to the Senate Periodical Press Gallery but were denied as the webzine could not be the pair's primary source of income.[14] In August 1996, both men were "shown the door" from Blender for a "poor attitude" Meek attributed to a specific article.[16]

Meek and Rosenberg then founded "Digital Culture Interactive News", which wrote stories about their Gridlock webzine,[17][18] and he ended up sending submissions to Readers Digest and Ladies Home Journal for the money they sent readers who submit amusing anecdotes. He also started an unsuccessful "Spookhouse Media Services". On Election Night 1996, both Rosenberg and Meek were in the Bob Dole Media Center.[19] Meek wrote of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, "Our government is ruthless and efficient, showering its foes with disinformation fabricated by geniuses to soften up the opposition just before everything goes BLAM".[20] When Rosenberg chose to leave UPI, Meek was "told to pack [his] bags as well" and went back to working on Gridlock webzine which had to relocate its webspace to reside on the servers of the libertarian patriotnews.com.[21] Meek bemoaned in 2001 that he "has always been skilled at attracting unwarranted attention to himself".[22]

Meek became a reporter for the New York Daily News alongside his father's colleague Ken Bazinet, who covered the White House and had helped Meek and Rosenberg with stories for their webzine,[23][24] covering national security. Meek published several stories investigating the death of Dave Sharrett II, whose father had taught Meek at Langley High School.[25][3] Meek wrote of his "deep friendship" with the family of Caitlan Coleman, and is a personal friend of constitutional lawyer Mark Zaid.[26][27]

In 2011 Meek left the Daily News to serve as a senior counter-terrorism investigator for the House Committee on Homeland Security.[25][28] He noted that he was unsure why Congressman Peter King had offered him the role and it seemed like a spontaneous choice,[29] but noted he accepted the position as he'd written largely on terrorism for the Daily News and his cousin had been killed in the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.[30]

Meek and Josh Margolin were hired the same day in 2013 as investigative producers for ABC News.[28][31] Meek worked on 20/20, Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight and Nightline programming.[32][33]

Meek appeared as a panelist at the 2021 Double Exposure Film Festival related to his work on the documentary 3212 Un-redacted on the Tongo Tongo ambush.[34][35][36] In 2022, Meek was named as the winner of the top award by the Foley Foundation.[37][38][39][40]

Investigation and arrest

On April 27, 2022, Meek's home was raided by the FBI, more than a year after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children[41] received a tip from Dropbox that Meek's account had uploaded five videos depicting the sexual abuse of children, leading to an investigation alongside Project Safe Childhood.[42][43][44][45] The FBI seized digital devices allegedly containing hundreds of images of child pornography. Meek was also accused of participating in group chats that traded child abuse materials.[45] Investigators found that Meek engaged with minors on social media, including posing as a female minor himself, and sextorted nude photos of minors.[46][47][48][7] The FBI alleges he had written about cooperating with a younger woman to bear a child together who wanted to sexually molest the infant together with him.[49]

On January 31, 2023, Meek was arrested and charged with transporting child pornography, which calls for a minimum of five years and up to 20 years in prison.[48] The Department of Justice released the FBI Affidavit that reports Meek writing to another individual "Have you ever raped a toddler girl? It’s amazing.”, and repeatedly sharing a video showing the rape of an infant girl.[50][51][52][53]

The FBI allegations cover other "extremely disturbing details" about the actions of Meek, which included engaging "in sexually explicit conversations where the participants expressed enthusiasm for the sexual abuse of children".[54] The US Attorney's office reported that “In speaking with law enforcement after the search, [Meek] told them that his life was over”.[28] In denying bail, the US District Judge expressed concerns about Meek engaging in the "grooming process".[55] Meek will remain in jail pending trial.[55]

While electronic devices including four laptops were seized in the FBI raid, the government only managed to decrypt the contents of a single laptop as of April 20 2023, limiting the reach of "this case" while leaving open the possibility of further criminal prosecution as they processed the other three laptops.[56] Meek has filed a motion to compel, in which he references his belief that a constitutional reporter's privilege should prevent the child sex offence investigators from looking at any files other than "visual depictions" that may be on his electronics, but the Department of Justice responded "There is no basis for the assertion of any such privilege when the reporter has himself committed the criminal offense, and even less so where, as here, the crime is unrelated to his newsgathering activities."[56]

Speculation following initial reports

Following the initial raid, Meek "resigned very abruptly" from ABC News and public life.[57] Rolling Stone suggested the raid may be related to classified materials found on his laptop related to his work as a journalist.[28][58][59][53] Following Meek's arrest, it was revealed that Rolling Stone editor Noah Shachtman had rewritten the original 2022 story before publication, without the journalist's knowledge, to remove the fact the raid had been in relation to child sexual abuse.[60]

Legal journalist Marcy Wheeler referenced that Meek had earlier offered a particularly memorable comment that "sometimes we fall in love with our sources" in reference to working on national security stories, noting that the legal response by Meek, his lawyer and ABC News all suggested something strange was afoot.[61] Wheeler drew attention to the Rolling Stone's reference to Brian Epstein, one of Meek's senior colleagues at ABC News, who had similarly resigned abruptly months earlier in a manner suggestive of legal problems unrelated to their work as journalists.[62][61]

The Rolling Stone article which "lionized Meek's record and swashbuckling style", combined with friends and colleagues consistently reporting that Meek had simply "vanished" without explanation, led to "dark speculation" Meek had been targeted for his work as a journalist.[63][64][65] Tucker Carlson opined that "armed men with guns from the Biden administration" raiding a journalist was evidence of "a dictatorship".[66] KARN-FM offered their conclusion that "Maybe [Meek]'s in a gulag, maybe they killed him and they threw his body into a woodchipper and he's mulch",[67] Glenn Beck said the federal raid against Meek as a journalist was the biggest story of 2022.[68]

References

  1. ^ James Gordon Meek, Gridlock Magazine, September 11, 2002. 9/11 First Anniversary
  2. ^ David Ford (April 29, 2013). "ABC News Expands its Award-Winning Investigative Unit". ABC News. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  3. ^ a b Operation Pineapple Express. Simon & Schuster. August 30, 2022. ISBN 9781668003534. Archived from the original on January 17, 2022. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  4. ^ https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/02/01/james-gordon-meek-journalist-child-pornopgraphy/
  5. ^ "Man Arrested for Transporting Images of Child Sexual Abuse". US Department of Justice. February 1, 2023.
  6. ^ Johnson, Ted (February 1, 2023). "Former ABC News Producer Arrested On Charge Of Transporting Child Pornography". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  7. ^ a b FBI Complaint, United States v. James Gordon Meek, Case No 1:23-MJ-32, 23 January 2023.
  8. ^ Cartwright, Lachlan (October 24, 2022). "FBI Raid on ABC News Bigshot Producer Wasn't Tied to His Work". The Daily Beast – via www.thedailybeast.com.
  9. ^ James Gordon Meek, Gridlock Magazine, Adios Bubbster: Clinton was a gold-star newsmaker, January 19, 2001
  10. ^ "Teen-Beat. Scaley Andrew". www.teenbeatrecords.com. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  11. ^ "Scaley Andrew". Discogs. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  12. ^ "This Book Does Not Suck: Jon Fine Discusses The Indie Music Scene of the '80s and '90s". DCist. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  13. ^ "Amateur On Plastic: The Butch Willis Movie (DVD)". Spin Time Records. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  14. ^ a b Society of Professional Journalists, Credentialing for Online Journalists, October 2000
  15. ^ Kurtz, Howard (December 18, 1995). "Talk That's Anything But Cheap". Washington Post. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
  16. ^ "UPI's Gridlock & Load | 2nd ANNIVERSARY BUZZ". web.archive.org. May 25, 2000. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  17. ^ Rogers, Jim. "Facing Terror: The Government's Response to Contemporary Extremists in America", Page 104
  18. ^ "American Journalism Review - Archives".
  19. ^ "DCi Newshound Mike Rosenberg". Archived from the original on April 19, 2003.
  20. ^ "Gridlock & Load | Launch Pad January 2001 | ADIOS, BUBBSTER". web.archive.org. August 4, 2004. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  21. ^ "Gridlock & Load | Launch Pad | Third Anniversary, Oct. 1999". web.archive.org. August 19, 2004. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  22. ^ "Gridlock & Load | Crew". Archived from the original on April 15, 2001.
  23. ^ "Gridlock & Load | Launch Pad | Third Anniversary, Oct. 1999". web.archive.org. August 19, 2004. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  24. ^ "Gridlock & Load | Washington War Groom | Like moths to the flame". web.archive.org. August 27, 2004. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  25. ^ a b Jackman, Tom (February 26, 2012). "A closer look at those in the Dave Sharrett case". Washington Post. Retrieved March 5, 2023.
  26. ^ "Jim Coleman, father of ex-Taliban hostage, was a man of honor: Reporter's Notebook". ABC News. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  27. ^ https://www.npr.org/2023/03/21/1164360143/rolling-stone-fbi-raid-journalist-james-gordon-meek
  28. ^ a b c d Rizzo, Salvador (February 1, 2023). "Former ABC News journalist charged in child pornography case". Washington Post. Retrieved March 5, 2023.
  29. ^ "Daily News' Terror Scribe Joins Peter King's Court; 'It's Kind of Like Working In a Think Tank'". Observer. February 17, 2011. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  30. ^ "Daily News' Terror Scribe Joins Peter King's Court; 'It's Kind of Like Working In a Think Tank'". Observer. February 17, 2011. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  31. ^ "ABC News Expands its Award-Winning Investigative Unit". ABC News. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  32. ^ Shanfeld, Ethan (February 1, 2023). "Former ABC News Producer Arrested on Child Pornography Charge". Variety. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  33. ^ "James Gordon Meek News Stories and Articles". ABC News. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  34. ^ Kenigsberg, Ben (November 11, 2021). "'3212 Un-Redacted' Review: Trying to Solve a Mission's Mysteries". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
  35. ^ "3212 UN-REDACTED | Double Exposure Film Festival 2021".
  36. ^ BEATRICE VERHOEVEN (July 28, 2022). "2022 News & Documentary Emmy Nominations Revealed". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 22, 2022. Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary 3212 Un-Redacted ABC
  37. ^ https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/02/01/james-gordon-meek-journalist-child-pornopgraphy/
  38. ^ "ISIS 'Beatle' accused of murdering Americans found guilty". ABC7 New York. April 15, 2022. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  39. ^ "Accused ISIS 'Beatle,' on trial for brutal kidnappings, faces mothers of American victims". ABC News. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  40. ^ "ISIS 'Beatle' accused of murdering Americans found guilty on all charges". ABC News. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  41. ^ "Former ABC News journalist charged in child pornography case". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  42. ^ Flood, Brian (February 1, 2023). "Ex-ABC News producer James Gordon Meek arrested for transportation of child pornography". Fox News. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  43. ^ "Former ABC News Investigative Reporter Is Facing Federal Child Pornography Charges". Oxygen Official Site. February 2, 2023. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  44. ^ Shanfeld, Ethan (February 1, 2023). "Former ABC News Producer Arrested on Child Pornography Charge". Variety.
  45. ^ a b "Ex-ABC News producer arrested and charged with transporting child abuse materials". Independent.co.uk. February 2023.
  46. ^ "Former ABC News Investigative Reporter Is Facing Federal Child Pornography Charges". Oxygen Official Site. February 2, 2023. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  47. ^ "Ex-ABC News journalist charged in child sexual exploitation case". torontosun. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  48. ^ a b Richer, Alanna Durkin (February 1, 2023). "Ex-ABC journalist charged in child sexual exploitation case". Yahoo! News. Associated Press.
  49. ^ "Former ABC News Investigative Reporter Is Facing Federal Child Pornography Charges". Oxygen Official Site. February 2, 2023. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  50. ^ https://www.npr.org/2023/03/21/1164360143/rolling-stone-fbi-raid-journalist-james-gordon-meek
  51. ^ "Man Arrested for Transporting Images of Child Sexual Abuse". www.justice.gov. February 1, 2023. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  52. ^ Feuerherd, Ben; Land, Olivia (February 1, 2023). "Reporter James Gordon Meek charged in child pornography case". NY Post. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  53. ^ a b Folkenflick, David (March 21, 2023). "The FBI raided a notable journalist's home. Rolling Stone didn't tell readers why". NPR National Public Radio. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  54. ^ Flood, Brian (March 21, 2023). "Rolling Stone accused of whitewashing child sex crime angle of ex-ABC News producer's home raid". Fox News. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  55. ^ a b Rizzo, Salvador (February 6, 2023). "Former ABC News producer detained until trial on child pornography charge". Washington Post.
  56. ^ a b Wheeler, Marcy, James Gordon Meek and Merrick Garland's "Suspect Exception", April 25 2023
  57. ^ "ABC News reporter James Gordon Meek 'resigned very abruptly' following alleged FBI raid of home". Fox News. October 19, 2022.
  58. ^ "The FBI raided a notable journalist's home. Rolling Stone didn't tell readers why | WNYC | New York Public Radio, Podcasts, Live Streaming Radio, News". WNYC. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  59. ^ Marcus, Josh (October 20, 2022). "Who is James Gordon Meek, star journalist who's been missing since April FBI raid?". The Independent. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
  60. ^ https://www.npr.org/2023/03/21/1164360143/rolling-stone-fbi-raid-journalist-james-gordon-meek
  61. ^ a b Wheeler, Marcy, Sometimes We Fall in Love with Our Sources, Oct 20 2022
  62. ^ https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/fbi-raid-abc-news_producer-1234613619/
  63. ^ https://www.npr.org/2023/03/21/1164360143/rolling-stone-fbi-raid-journalist-james-gordon-meek
  64. ^ "The FBI raided a notable journalist's home. Rolling Stone didn't tell readers why | WNYC | New York Public Radio, Podcasts, Live Streaming Radio, News". WNYC. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  65. ^ Flood, Brian (October 19, 2022). "ABC News reporter James Gordon Meek 'resigned very abruptly' following alleged FBI raid of home". Fox News. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  66. ^ "When a journalist's home was raided by the FBI, Glenn Beck and Tucker Carlson erroneously speculated about the government's motive. The journalist has now been charged with transporting child porn". Yahoo Life. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  67. ^ KARN 102.9 FM [Newsradio 102.9 KARN] : October 19, 2022 09:00AM-12:00PM CDT, KARN 102.9 FM [Newsradio 102.9 KARN], October 19, 2022, retrieved April 26, 2023{{citation}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  68. ^ "When a journalist's home was raided by the FBI, Glenn Beck and Tucker Carlson erroneously speculated about the government's motive. The journalist has now been charged with transporting child porn". Yahoo Life. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
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