If you’re confused, you’re not alone.
Lawyer Sidd Sinha’s sole objection to STAND League’s article was that associating Heidenry with the In Touch content published under his own watch is defamatory.
It would all be comical if it wasn’t so chilling an indictment of American Media, Inc.
Imagine a publication so bad that your lawyer insists that simply having your name associated with its articles is an act of defamation.
Equally notably, Mr. Sinha did not object to the well-established fact that Heidenry published content sourced to child sex trafficking enabler Tony Ortega—who almost single-handedly kept Backpage.com in business so that it could continue bringing harm to women and children through their sexual exploitation. (Heidenry even referred to Ortega as an “expert” on “faith.”)
Apparently, the reputation of In Touch is so bad that it’s better to associate Heidenry with child sex trafficking than the name of his own publication.
It would all be comical if it wasn’t so chilling an indictment of American Media, Inc. (AMI). This is not the company’s first effort to try to distance themselves from their own reputation, though it may be the clumsiest: On October 1, 2020, AMI, long infamous for its sensational tabloid hate writing, was rebranded “a360 Media.”
To be clear: When James Heidenry was called out for quoting a child sex trafficking enabler as a source, he used a lawyer to try to shut down the conversation, rather than acknowledge it or reform.
Free speech for me, but never for thee.
That’s the James Heidenry motto in 2024—and it’s not journalism.
