Days away from millions celebrating the ball drop to ring in 2023, investigative reporters have a lot to worry about. Media trust remains near an all-time low; data and technology trends increasingly pressure the media sector; and consumers are the new producers, making reporters more and more irrelevant.
How much moreso for old-dogs trying to learn new tricks in tiny San Bernadino County in the California desert. Enter Joe Nelson, investigative reporter extraordinaire, who has been digging up stories since just before Y2K. (Mr. Nelson also has an active side hustle of promoting crystals, elixirs, and Religious Science -- not to be confused with Christian Science or Scientology -- a miniscule religious pantheism sect originating in SoCal.) Who better to attack an evangelical Christian university with fabricated storylines?
On December 19, 2022, The San Bernardino Sun published an article by Mr. Nelson with the sensationalized headline "Embattled California Christian college under federal investigation for fraud, money-laundering and labor trafficking." (The San Bernardino Sun article was syndicated by the Southern California News Group to such illustrious publications as The Press-Enterprise and The Mercury News, among others).
Mr. Nelson is being slammed and discredited for his report on Olivet University because of his utter failure to do basic fact checking on his primary source -- with two firsthand witnesses saying Mr. Nelson's source account is unconditionally false. This, despite Mr. Nelson himself taking a tour of the Olivet Campus in question and not finding anything dissatisfactory, according to university sources not authorized to officially speak on the record.
Forget big data, TikTok trends and subscription media models -- perhaps Mr. Nelson's New Year's resolution should instead be to spend less time promoting crystals and elixirs, and more time learning basic fact-checking. Crystals and elixirs won't likely help him with that.
SOLE ORIGINAL SOURCE "MELISSA SIMS" CAUGHT IN A LIE
If he has any hope to stay relevant, Mr. Nelson will likely need to stop sipping on elixirs, and start downing large doses of the truth in full. Embarrassingly, Mr. Nelson's only originally reported source, Melissa Sims, was proven to be caught in a lie minutes after Mr. Nelson's story was published Monday. Moments after Mr. Nelson reported his "original" -- or perhaps more appropriately, largely-"fictional" investigation -- HNGN was contacted by two sources wholly debunking his primary source's claims.
Meanwhile, university sources question Mr. Nelson's "agenda" for the attack article because, despite Nelson repeatedly being provided firsthand evidence to the contrary, he chose to rely on debunked Newsweek sources and articles heavily for his "investigation" of Olivet University. But Newsweek's articles were based on false and previously debunked statements from a handful of former Olivet students, including Rebecca Singh, who made a phony "911 call" on March 27, 2018 that led to Newsweek's made up "labor trafficking" narrative in the first place.
Ms. Singh, along with other students, desperately believed that submitting false accusations against Olivet University would earn her a green card from the U.S. government.
For his contribution to the storyline, Mr. Nelson, instead of digging into what appears to be the real problem -- the Newsweek CEO levying serious threats to mow down his opponents like "puppies in front of a machine gun" while attempting a dizzying onslaught of media missiles that have fizzled as duds one after another -- he interviewed as the major source for his story a former kitchen staffer.
The former campus cook, Melissa Sims, whom Nelson interviewed by phone, claimed that she picked up the student Singh on the day of the "911 call." But two eyewitnesses say Ms. Sim's testimony is completely false. How do they know? They were there, and "[n]ot Melissa Sims."
These two sources stepped forward Monday to say they -- not Sims -- drove Singh directly to the LAX airport on the day in question in Mr. Nelson's "report," at the request of Singh's mother. One of these eyewitnesses is Natalie Cernovtan, who was a fellow student to Ms. Singh at the time.
Ms. Cernovtan's account independently corroborated the account of the other witness, who wishes to remain anonymous for personal reasons.
"Your informer gave you wrong info," Ms. Cernovtan told Mr. Nelson early Tuesday morning, according to information reviewed by HNGN. On March 27, "[Singh] asked me to go together to airport [sic]." Ms. Sims was not in the picture whatsoever, according to both Ms. Cernovtan and the second source. As of Tuesday morning, Mr. Nelson still has not retracted his article, despite his primary source being completely debunked as not even being present at the time in question.
Additionally, people familiar with the matter say that Singh was not trying to "escape" the Olivet campus that day, as Ms. Sims falsely alleges. Instead, Singh had tried for several months to extend her stay on campus, desiring to remain in the U.S. for as long as possible. However, school administrators decided that it would be best for her to return home due to her poor academic performance and behavior. Eventually, Singh was persuaded to leave the campus, and she was provided a safe ride to the airport.
All of this was exposed in a previous article revealing the true story behind Singh.
But Mr. Nelson's "investigation" does not reference these publicly available facts at all, despite sources saying he was directly provided this information. Oddly, he chose to print false statements from Ms. Sims instead, while also choosing to reference only debunked Newsweek stories. It's no surprise that these efforts on his part combined to result in a fake news story.
But why did he do it?
CONNECTION WITH NEWSWEEK DISPUTE?
One would need a crystal ball to look into Mr. Nelson's heart and know his reasons for publishing news with complete disregard for the fact checking of basic sources as an "investigator." And perhaps it's simply just one more step in the trend towards investigative reporter irrelevance, since the rest of Mr. Nelson's story amounts to rehashes of old news, in some cases three years old or more. But there could also be more sinister reasons driving Mr. Nelson's "investigation."
The timing of Nelson's story curiously coincides perfectly with Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad's recent legal setbacks in his quest to wrest control of Newsweek from another shareholder -- using OIivet University as a pawn.
In these disputes, Mr. Pragad has resorted to increasingly desperate measures to influence the courtroom in his favor, including numerous attack articles chock-full of falsehoods, debunked against his sworn enemy Olivet University, a defendant Newsweek itself has sued under Mr. Pragad's leadership. Media suing and then negatively covering the defendant in its own suit is an unheard of breach of all media ethics.
Still, while calling Olivet a university originating from "a small Christian sect," Mr. Pragad appears obsessively preoccupied with covering it, at times publishing Olivet stories as the top news on Newsweek above headlines about Trump, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, a looming domestic recession, and other critical global news.
Perhaps it is simply narcissism on the part of Newsweek -- the publication recently updated its About Us page to whine extensively about Mr. Pragad's Olivet woes, under the excuse that the newsroom is committed to covering its owners.
(Pragad disciple Nancy Cooper, Newsweek Global Editor-in-Chief, has yet to explain how covering Olivet, which does not own Newsweek, while ethics-washing the misdeeds of her publisher Pragad, who pays her payroll each month, accounts for Newsweek being committed to covering itself.)
Coincidentally, Nelson's article closely follows the same content and themes as Newsweek's prior attack articles. In fact, the only news publication cited as a source in Nelson's article is Newsweek.
Is it possible that a Newsweek writer (or, daresay, the CEO himself?) influenced Nelson to write a biased article against Olivet University to help the magazine's CEO gain leverage in his covetous shareholder dispute?
If the answer is yes, then add another New Year's resolution to Mr. Nelson's growing list -- stop secret media collusion to bolster a corporate shareholder's personal greed when media is supposed to be a transparent medium for the people.
As any ethical reporter would know, big media companies should never manipulate smaller Christian institutions to gain leverage for a gluttonous business power struggle. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out.
OLIVET UNIVERSITY RE-APPROVAL CONTRADICTS ENTIRE STORY
Nelson at least uncovered one nugget of truth during his "investigation."
In his reporting, Nelson admits to discovering that Olivet University recently received full re-approval from the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE). This happened following a full site inspection from BPPE representatives, who checked the school records, campus, and students thoroughly.
Yet, despite knowing that the school and students were evaluated and deemed healthy by a government agency, Nelson still persisted to write a story that implied problems with the school and its students. Why?
Previously, Newsweek conjured up a series of fake "human trafficking" articles to attack Olivet University. Now, that has morphed into a fake news article about "labor trafficking".
How did a fake "human trafficking" story become a fake "labor trafficking" story? And why did two big media groups attack the same small Christian university at the same time?
Furthermore, why did Mr. Nelson attack Olivet University with such a sensational headline? In the best-case scenario, he published it for clickbait -- as a last ditch effort at relevance before 2023 erodes media trust even further. In the worst-case, he is in on Newsweek's scheme. As any good investigator would agree, time and truth will tell.
SERVING GOOD CAMPUS MEALS
Although some questions remain unanswered at the time of publication of this story, both regulators and students agree on some basic facts about Olivet -- the campus is fitting, the courses enriching, and the food is abundant.
During their unscheduled site visit, BPPE staff observed students eating lunch in the school cafeteria. They interviewed many students to check their satisfaction with campus life, including meals, and listened to positive feedback from the students, according to university sources. Mr. Nelson, too, was treated respectfully, given all access, and had a visibly positive time on the campus in his recent visit, according to sources familiar with the matter.
All of this directly contradicts Ms. Singh's and Ms. Sims' statements about Olivet University's campus. There are no students hiding in bushes at the campus, waiting to leap forward with hunger pangs at unsuspecting visitors while crying out for help.
Instead, according to current students interviewed for this article, campus life is refreshing, the courses are thought-provoking, and campus food is plentiful and tailored to students' tastes and preferences. The biggest issue students have seemed to be with the unsavory dishes Ms. Sim herself was serving.
One student shared that previously there had been a distinct cultural gap between the cooks and the students, which eventually resulted in the kitchen staff (including Ms. Sims) being replaced.
Now, it seems Ms. Sims is the one being served. As one student remarked, "This new kitchen staff understands our tastes in food much better than [Ms. Sims]."
And if Mr. Nelson persists in publishing fake news, he might be next.
This story was covered by HNGN's contributor writer, Ryan Lee, following the developing story of Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad.
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