Questions around the Legal Fund for the Man Who Allegedly Destroyed a Satanic Statue
Michael Cassidy's lawyer is a contributor to the same news site that broke the story and organized his legal fund
Yesterday morning, Michael Cassidy, a former candidate for the Mississippi state legislature, was arrested for allegedly beheading a statue in the Iowa state Capitol, placed there by the Satanic Temple. By mid-afternoon, Cassidy had a lawyer, Pennsylvania attorney Davis Younts, and a prepared statement that was run in an exclusive by the right-wing news site The Sentinel, written by its Editor, Ben Zeisloft. By that evening, The Sentinel had announced that they were “host[ing] a legal defense fund for [Cassidy]” on fundraising site GiveSendGo, ostensibly to pay Younts’s fees. Gaining much publicity, the fundraiser quickly met its $20,000 goal and, at the time of this writing, has been closed.
Younts is not just Cassidy’s lawyer, he is a contributor to The Sentinel, who has promoted the site and Zeisloft in the past and who has previously provided quotes for several of Zeisloft’s stories.
Again, here are the facts as we know them thus far: A relatively unknown, failed candidate for the Mississippi state legislature traveled to Iowa and, on the morning of December 14, allegedly defaced a satanic statue in the Iowa state Capitol and was subsequently arrested. By early afternoon, before the story had broken, he had retained a lawyer from Pennsylvania. By mid-afternoon, the editor of an online news site, that has previously interviewed and published the lawyer, was tipped off. The editor then broke the story of the arrest, using the lawyer as a source. Later that day, the editor and his news site hosted a fundraiser to raise legal fees for the alleged perpetrator, which will presumably go to the very same lawyer who most likely tipped them off and who contributes to their publication.
The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics contains the guideline, “Explain ethical choices and processes to audiences. Encourage a civil dialogue with the public about journalistic practices, coverage and news content,” and “Be wary of sources offering information for favors or money; do not pay for access to news. Identify content provided by outside sources, whether paid or not.” Given the circumstances around Zeisloft and The Sentinel’s reporting and subsequent fundraising for Cassidy, it is more than reasonable to request that Zeisloft publish source material on who tipped him off to Cassidy’s alleged actions and arrest, and the timeline in which that happened.
Update: Co-founder of The Sentinel Nathan Barnes has acknowledged that Younts was their source and claims that he informed them of the incident after the fact. What is most of note in his statement is that, nearly a full day after breaking the story and running a fundraising campaign for Cassidy, The Sentinel apparently has still not done the basic journalistic due diligence of asking Younts when he first was in contact with Cassidy, and whether he had prior knowledge of the incident.
Cassidy has stated that the fundraiser has been reopened, due to the potential of further legal charges. At the time of this update, the fund is at $38,668.
Zeisloft has claimed that “Many are baselessly, and slanderously speculating” that he had foreknowledge of the incident, an accusation he then specifically leveraged towards Sovereign Nations founder Michael O’Fallon. He also claims that Younts contacted him and The Sentinel “well after the altar was torn down” (emphasis mine), though Cassidy had apparently retained Younts (a lawyer not from his home state or the state of the incident), and Zeisloft had run his story, within hours of the incident. Again, considering Zeisloft is the journalist and Editor who broke this story, one wonders why he did not ask Younts about the timeline of his relationship with Cassidy and put it in the story.
Lastly, Barnes responded to my post of this article on X with a GIF of Jimmy Fallon asking, “Soooo…?”, presumably suggesting that there is nothing questionable regarding the facts of his organization’s conduct that I have presented here. I would refer him to The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, previously mentioned, which his publication is expected to adhere to, should he wish it to be regarded as a news site and not simply a public relations firm and fundraising organization for his political allies.
