2012 Mitt Romney POTUS campaign Digital Director Zac Moffatt - now, Targeted Victory CEO - blocked me after I exposed Social Media Director Bill Murphy tweets about "race war", then scrubbed tweets to Ali Akbar Alexander. Now, Moffat's firm could be working on Georgia Senate run-offs.
UPDATE: On July 11, 2019, Marie C. Baca reported for The Washington Post that Ali Alexander and Zack Moffat were both at President Trump's social media summit. Roca wrote that "[an] attendee with mainstream credentials was Zac Moffatt, chief executive of Targeted Victory, a Republican-leaning digital strategy and marketing firm, who was digital director for Republican Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign" and that "Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft, who has long been criticized for spreading conspiracy theories online, was there as was Ali Alexander, who recently became notorious for questioning in an inflammatory tweet whether Sen. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.), a Democratic presidential candidate, was actually an “American black.” However, Alexander's ties to the Romney campaign and Moffatt were not reported.
Less than a month ago,Washington Post journalist Philip Bump wrote a story called "A decade of wringing money and power out of conservative victimhood nears its apex", which began with a paragraph about Ali Akbar Alexander, who first entered the limelight eight years ago, when he helped raise money for an absurd lawsuit against me, falsely accusing me of being in a conspiracy with convicted bomber Brett Kimberlin and cyber-stalking hoaxer Neal Rauhauser to commit swattings against conservatives, that was dismissed with prejudice.
Bump wrote: "Ali Alexander is a right-wing personality who has worked with a rogue’s gallery of notorious characters in that world: Alex Jones, Roger Stone, Jacob Wohl, Laura Loomer, you name it. A decade ago, he was flitting around on the fringes of the conservative movement where his past legal troubles contributed to scrutiny of his efforts to raise funds for an online publishing venture. Now, he identifies himself as 'national organizer' for 'Stop the Steal,' an organization which adopts the tagline of President Trump’s ploy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election."
However, Bump and other journalists have ignored for eight years, my reporting on Ali Alexander's ties to Republican Congresspeople and other important figures in the GOP who aren't considered "notorious characters."
I sent Bump emails, DMs and tweets trying to get him to respond to stories I've written, and additional research I have on Alexander's past, but like other journos, he ignored my tips, but then at least immediately blocked me, after I gave up and asked him, so I could write this article.
Days before the Georgia Senate run-off, which could completely change which political party controls the chamber, Bump chose to ignore these initial DMs - cleaned up just a bit for clarity's sake - that I sent him on Saturday.
"Hello, for the last 8 years I haven't been able to get one journalist to report on Target Victory CEO Zac Moffatt's ties to felon and fraudster Ali Alexander aka Ali Akbar and how he scrubbed all evidence of it. Even though my reporting led to their mutual pal (and longtime Akbar colleague) Bill Murphy who was Mitt Romney's Digital Media Director but had to stop tweeting the day before Romney's speech at the RNC in 2012 and he scrubbed his blog and resume because i exposed their ties to Akbar while he was still on probation and showed that Murphy had used that same twitter account to tweet about 'race war' and hype Ali Akbar."
I continued: "Bill Murphy then went to work for the Senate Republican Committee for two years, because no one will report on what I reported as it happened and in other articles (LINK). Eight years, and still not one journalist I've contacted will report on any of this, plus tons of other research i have about Ali Akbar's past. Also, none of you report on the fact that when Ali Akbar got booted from CPAC, the only person that showed up was Sen.Ted Cruz."
"Isn't it more important to report on this Stop the Steal fraudster's ties to actual legit republicans than his ties to wackadoos on the right?" I added. "I mean, wtf, how is it not a story that Alexander is tied to the Romney presidential campaign in 2012"?
After he ignored my DMs, even though he had just tweeted, I tweeted: "After 8 years, I still can't get 1 MSM journalist to report on ties between Stop the Steal fraudster, convicted felon Ali Akbar aka Ali Alexanderm & the 2012 Mitt Romney POTUS campaign. I'm sure @pbump will be the latest journo to ignore my tweets & DMs."
Giving Bump the benefit of the doubt, that he might have not read what I sent him, I wrote an email to him that included my DMs and my entire story, with this header: "No one will report on Ali Akbar Alexander ties to Mitt Romney & Ted Cruz." A second email asked, "How is this still not a story?"
I waited a day, but Bump didn't respond and since time was running out before the run-off, I sent him more DMs: "Seriously, are you going to ignore all my tweets, DMs and emails about this? Someone eventually will report on this all....it's a shame that you've chosen to ignore me. I used to love WaPo more than anything in the world....until you hired back Dave Weigel, who decided to threaten me in an email that your outgoing Managing Editor Kevin Merida personally apologized to me over. Is it because you just blacklist me or would it be inconvenient to report about Mitt Romney,now?"
I then sent him the screenshot, displayed below, figuring that would finally attract his attention, since Moffatt's firm could be working on the run-off election, too.
Losing my patience, I added, "See, that, Phil? I'm about to tweet how you are ignoring that I've tied Targeted Victory to Ali Akbar...and they were paid millions just a few months ago by the Georgia Action Fund. That's a really good look for you." Then I showed why it could be important in the following tweet with the screenshot appended: "Zac Moffatt's firm, Targeted Victory, was paid $4,257,259 by the Georgia Action Fund just before the election, yet @PBump ignores emails, tweets & DMs about my article proving ties to Stop the Steal hoaxer Ali Akbar Alexander & how Zac scrubbed his tweets."
I waited a few more hours, but still didn't hear back from Bump, so then I got a bit angrier, which I believe was justified, but I'm sure many of my longtime critics will just use these final DMs as excuses on why my reporting is often ignored, no matter how important it could be to readers.
"You should have contacted me to begin with when you reported on Ali Akbar," I complained, then added: "I just don't understand why you all refuse to report on any of this or anything I break. I've worked with John Solomon, Tom Fitton and Chuck Johnson, and many other people connected to Trump scandals surrounding WikiLeaks etc. No one uses my research. No one contacts me to interview me. You all ignore what many of these people did to me.It's absurd."
Bump finally proved he read these DMs, at least, because he blocked me, immediately after I sent them: "Can you just please block me on Twitter, so I can add that to my stories? So, that, when they do eventually break, you make yourself look worse? You know who else is connected to Ali Alexander Akbar? Dave Weigel. He wrote countless stories on Ali Alexander and his little group of pals on the far right for years at different media outlets, without revealing he was pals with them all. They used to hang out and get drinks. Ali Alexander and Bill Murphy worked together on the Bob Turner campaign after Weiner resigned."
My final DMs included some information about other research I had, and which the Washington Post ignored when I proved it in countless emails to Merida and other editors: "Instead of reporting on Ali Alexander's work and relationship with elected Republicans etc. you all only note his connections to the far right fringe people. There are countless FEC violations committed by Dan Backer with all these people. Ladd Ehrlinger was bought and paid for, and he created commercials for many of these people, plus he was involved in the SuperPAC Supreme Court decisions, which Trump SuperPAC treasurer Dan Backer won, and changed all of politics. And Ladd, Backer and Akbar have a convoluted history, but Dave Weigel refuses to probe those connections, he'd rather get drunk with them, and shill for them."
I added: "It's outrageous. Then you wonder why people fall for fake news. Because you all just ignore tips....barely do any research....but find lots of time to tweet and retweet your pals at other media outlets, while ignoring criticism, tips, etc.Why do you even put your email address on your twitter account if you can't even respond to emails? It's really sad. You're like the deaf, dumb and blind monkeys all combined in one."
"Okay, Philip, I give up," I continued, "It's been real nice talking to a brick wall. I'll return to the search to find journalists who are willing to report on all the things these wackadoos have done...their ties to established GOP...and then I guess publish all these emails, tips etc that I sent in vain to journos who ignored them. The Washington Post has plagiarized me many times over the years....so don't do it again."
(Editor's Note: In a future article, I will go into greater detail on the numberous emails I sent to the Washington Post regarding how Weigel had shilled for Alexander and his pals, without noting his friendship with them all. As one example, on April 3, 2013 Weigel reported for Slate: "Simple: The Bostic campaign bet late on social media without really understanding its relevance. In the short two-week stretch of the runoff, the campaign hired roving new media guru Ali Akbar to beef up its presence. Akbar bought the web domain “TrustCurtis.com,” and hashtagged the slogan. Rick Santorum, whose PAC has co-sponsored Akbar’s CPAC 'Blog Bash' parties for two years running, flew down to South Carolina for one day of campaign events with Bostic. On Twitter, certainly, mentions of Bostic surged from nothing to something. ViralRead.com, a news site co-founded by Akbar in 2012, became a one-stop shop for #SC01 news, with a jaundiced view of Sanford.")
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