James Gordon Meek

James Gordon Meek is a senior American journalist who worked for ABC News and won many awards, before he was arrested after the FBI searched his house and found hundreds of images of child pornography and evidence he was sexually abusing children, and spoke about having raped a young toddler girl and had a video of it. The media referred to other items on his computers and phones as showing "really disturbing images of child sex abuse".[1] He was sentenced to 6 years in prison.[2]

Meek was a drummer for a rock music band along with other journalists, and spent years working in amateur journalism and publishing an internet blog or webzine about politics, as he lived near Washington DC.[3][4][5] He began working for the New York Daily News. He was invited by Peter King to become an expert for the House of Representatives, giving advice about preventing terrorism.[6] He then joined ABC News as a senior producer.

A website named Dropbox noticed that Meek had uploaded five videos showing children being raped. They contacted police. Because Meek was a journalist, police had to be very careful not to do anything wrong that would make people believe they were bullying Meek for his work, which sometimes said bad things about the government. Searching through his computers and cellphones, police discovered hundreds of images - some that appear to be downloaded from the internet, and some which appear to be made by Meek himself - showing both violent rape and less violent sexual abuse of children of all ages.[7][8][9]

The Court initially said Meek did not have to sit in prison while he waited for his trial and could be released on bail, but the government lawyers complained and the Court agreed to keep him in prison until his trial. The story was notable because other journalists knew that Meek had been arrested for child pornography, but they either did not write about the news or else wrote false stories that lied and made readers believe he had been arrested for being too good of a journalist. Many people believed this lie, and got angry with the Biden Administration saying they were being unfair to a journalist - so the government had to explain that he was believed to be raping children and sharing images and videos of it on the internet.[10][11][12][13][14]

References

  1. ↑ Soave, Robby. The Hill, Rising: The Hill, March 2023
  2. ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/09/29/child-porn-meek-journalist-sentenced/
  3. ↑ "Teen-Beat. Scaley Andrew". www.teenbeatrecords.com. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  4. ↑ "Scaley Andrew". Discogs. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  5. ↑ "This Book Does Not Suck: Jon Fine Discusses The Indie Music Scene of the '80s and '90s". DCist. Archived from the original on 2023-03-27. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  6. ↑ "Daily News' Terror Scribe Joins Peter King's Court; 'It's Kind of Like Working In a Think Tank'". Observer. 2011-02-17. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  7. ↑ "Former ABC News journalist charged in child pornography case". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  8. ↑ Marcus, Josh (20 October 2022). "Who is James Gordon Meek, star journalist who's been missing since April FBI raid?". The Independent. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  9. ↑ Folkenflick, David (2023-03-21). "The FBI raided a notable journalist's home. Rolling Stone didn't tell readers why". NPR National Public Radio. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  10. ↑ Rizzo, Salvador (February 6, 2023). "Former ABC News producer detained until trial on child pornography charge". Washington Post.
  11. ↑ Wheeler, Marcy, James Gordon Meek and Merrick Garland's "Suspect Exception", April 25 2023
  12. ↑ "ABC News reporter James Gordon Meek 'resigned very abruptly' following alleged FBI raid of home". Fox News. October 19, 2022.
  13. ↑ Rizzo, Salvador (1 February 2023). "Former ABC News journalist charged in child pornography case". Washington Post. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  14. ↑ "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 2023-04-26.