Last summer, GotNews, one of the most noxious fake news sites on the Internet, abruptly went offline. Its impresario, pseudojournalist and right-wing troll Charles C. Johnson, is best known for pushing a version of “journalism” that is more akin to doxing. In his most outrageous stunts, Johnson outed a number of Ebola patients, plastered the name of the woman who made up a claim of rape at a University of Virginia frat party, and asked for help to “take out” Black Lives Matter leader Deray McKesson.
By all accounts, GotNews shut down after Johnson agreed to pay a settlement to the family of Joel Vangheluwe, whom he’d falsely smeared as the driver of the car that killed Heather Heyer in Charlottesville. But given Johnson’s breathless claims that he was being “persecuted for journalism,” why did he fold so soon?
Well, we may have gotten an explanation from Splinter News. It turns out that GotNews is filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and going out of business altogether.
The far-right news site GotNews filed a petition for federal Chapter 7 bankruptcy on April 24, court records show.
The now-defunct site and its founder, Charles C. Johnson, were sued in federal court last year for misidentifying an innocent teenager as the driver of a car that killed Heather Heyer during the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville in 2017; the bankruptcy petition is mentioned in court documents connected to the case. The petition lists GotNews’ total liabilities as between $500,000 and $1 million.
It’s not known whether the Vangheluwes have seen a penny of the settlement. Johnson’s lawyer, Marc Randazza—the lawyer of choice for far-right trolls—filed a notice of the bankruptcy petition late last month.
However, this may not be enough to keep the wolves from the door. Johnson hasn’t properly filed a number of required forms for his Chapter 7 petition. If he doesn’t fix the problem within two weeks, the petition will be dismissed. Nevertheless, it can be said beyond all doubt—GotNews is gone for good.