World Olivet Assembly (WOA) responded to Newsweek Tuesday in the latest chapter of what the evangelical Christian denomination calls "an ongoing harassment campaign" against "people and partners in WOA's network."
WOA's response comes after Newsweek earlier in the day published the latest of its series of ethics-breaching and vicious hit pieces on Olivet church and Olivet University. In the recent article, Newsweek writes that World Olivet Assembly and its General Secretary Mark Spisak are part of a "federal probe," but WOA swiftly denounced the article as full of self-serving bias towards Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad.
"Newsweek has sued WOA as part of its ongoing internal shareholder dispute and is now using its newsroom to the advantage of its CEO, Dev Pragad," the church blisteringly said in its official statement.
Deeming the Newsweek story's allegations "baseless" and "totally unsubstantiated," WOA rips it as reliant upon "anonymous sources, sensational headlines and subtle innuendo." The organization appears at times in the statement to be at a loss for how to respond to a story which, despite a nasty clickbait headline, conclusively "does not specify... any wrongdoing" on the part of either WOA or Mr. Spisak.
It is also unclear what Newsweek meant in accusing WOA of being "under ever closer scrutiny" by federal agents when only one specific instance of scrutiny, attributed to an anonymous, indirect source, was mentioned in the article. It is self-evident that it would be difficult for one instance of scrutiny to be "ever closer" to a subject than itself.
Newsweek Writers Shift To Open Bias Against Christians
The unspoken dynamic at the heart of Newsweek's article series until now has been negative news coverage motivated by bias against Christian religion. The fact that a secular mainstream news organization has been publishing -- and elevating to top-world-headline status -- articles against a small Christian university based on false rumors and anonymous statements has raised red flags in many readers' minds. What motivates Newsweek to write so vociferously about a small Christian school?
Newsweek cast aside all pretense of religious neutrality in its article series by shifting focus, from targeting a Christian university to now attacking a Christian church directly and inserting the words "money laundering" into the headline without any reason. It speaks volumes that the article itself does not accuse WOA of any crime, much less money laundering, after such a suggestive title.
This type of aggressive reporting is far beyond the norm, and it is chilling and disturbing that Newsweek is doing this openly, with no reservations, simply because it specifically targets Christian religious affiliation and not any other religion.
Nancy Cooper, Newsweek's global editor-in-chief, has vigorously defended against claims of slanting coverage in favor of either of its shareholders. But in so doing, she admitted that the subjects of these stories, the Christian organizations, are not in fact newsworthy. She explained that the only reason Newsweek reports on these "Christian" organizations is their "connection to Newsweek's owners."
However, it is important to know what kind of connections that Ms. Cooper is referring to. Absent any explanation about what religion has to do with the business interests of Newsweek's owners, this means that the purpose of targeting these Christian organizations with aggressive and unethical reporting tactics is because of their religious connection with a shareholder. This amounts to targeting a group for their faith.
We've been accused of being a partisan actor in the shareholder dispute because we've committed resources to covering a little-known Christian sect whose latest troubles have drawn scant attention from other media outlets. If these controversies had no connection to Newsweek's owners, we'd likely not cover them either. But it's crucial for us to report on our proprietors. We absolutely cannot be in the position of knowing about law-enforcement activity related to the company and failing to report on it.
Nancy Cooper, Newsweek Global Editor-In-Chief
Reporters Unqualified To Report On Christian Religion and Religious Groups
Assigned to Newsweek's story are "two reporters, both of whom seem to have no history or prior experience in covering news related to religion," WOA said. One of Mr. Pragad's editorial disciples, Naveed Jamali, is not a religion reporter, nor does he cover Christian issues, although he does comment on issues related to Muslims. He does not have experience with religious reporting nor Christian issues. (Mr. Jamali recently said in a TikTok video that he is motivated by fear of being "fired" if his boss Mr. Pragad doesn't prevail in court.)
Another of Mr. Pragad's ardent followers, Alex Rouhandeh, resides in Washington, D.C. and was recently promoted by Mr. Pragad and his newsroom to cover politics -- after authoring repeatedly debunked hit pieces against the CEO's court counterparties. None of this reflects the requisite experience and training to write about religious matters, nor the background needed to distinguish between a Christian denomination and a "sect."
Newsweek Created Its Own Connection To Story By Launching Lawsuit Against Subject Of Its Reporting
In a deep state of irony, Newsweek characterizes World Olivet Assembly as an organization "locked in a legal dispute" with Newsweek, and therefore newsworthy to cover. Yet Newsweek fails to mention that the reason WOA is "locked" in the "dispute" in the first place is because Newsweek unilaterally sued WOA.
"As WOA has no connection to Newsweek's ownership dispute, there is no legal basis for the lawsuit that Newsweek brought against WOA and several other entities and persons," the WOA statement said.
Newsweek's Bizarre Attempt To Coerce Shareholder By Pressuring Church
Without a proper basis for its lawsuit and articles, the question becomes magnified as to "why is Newsweek attacking a Christian church?"
The liberal media outlet's scorched-earth media and legal tactics against the evangelical church not only represent unprecedented breaches of all media ethics, but are also made in an apparently pointless effort to somehow coerce another church member, Newsweek owner Johnathan Davis, into selling his Newsweek shares to Mr. Pragad.
But without the ability to control the independent business, ownership, and legal decisions of church members regarding their own personal assets, WOA's hands are tied to do anything to help Mr. Pragad fulfill his rapacious desire to fully control Newsweek.
Furthermore, Newsweek's sudden shift of focus toward attacking a church is a likely sign that its courtroom battles are not going according to plan, and therefore it is seeking extrajudicial ways of gaining leverage, including attacking religious affiliation.
Newsweek Faces Scrutiny
Meanwhile, in another ironic twist, Newsweek is the actual organization that has been placed under intensified scrutiny since Mr. Pragad took the helm of the iconic American brand in 2018, despite the magazine's efforts to divert attention from its own indiscretions to WOA.
And it is clear Mr. Pragad and Newsweek staff feel pressure from the negative attention they have drawn. Facing ever more stress to maintain its whitewashed facade, Newsweek has added a new, polished section about Mr. Pragad to its homepage, revamped its About Us page to reference in depth Mr. Pragad's former religious views, and uploaded new ethics statements addressing Mr. Pragad's ties to Olivet. But apparently, Newsweek never asked Mr. Pragad how deep his ties really went.
Mr. Pragad Participant In, Or Fabricator Of, Crimes?
Mr. Pragad was an active participant in the Olivet church, even until this year, he himself said in a prior statement. Sources close to the matter say Mr. Pragad's wife often led children's retreats for the church members' kids. Mr. Pragad himself was spiritually raised under the leadership of the very reverend he now accuses of criminal ties.
On the other hand, Mr. Pragad was also deeply connected with Olivet University until earlier this year. His own wife was a teacher for K-12 youth at the university's Manhattan campus, serving as a board director for the children's school. And Mr. Pragad was a former dean of the university he now accuses of "money laundering" and "labor trafficking" during his own membership tenure.
In fact, because Mr. Pragad himself was an active leader in Olivet up until April 2022, and because all of Newsweek's accusations stem from events that occurred prior to the departure of Mr. Pragad and his wife from their church and university leadership roles, Mr. Pragad was potentially an active participant in all of the alleged "money laundering, labor trafficking, and fentanyl" schemes Newsweek has covered about Olivet.
That Mr. Pragad left the Olivet church cannot be a legal excuse since that does not wash his hands of any criminal liability he would have incurred from the time period where he was still in leadership, according to Newsweek's accusations. Mr. Pragad also has his own legal and financial woes to worry about, according to a recent lawsuit, such as ad fraud allegations, the court injunction blocking him from using Newsweek funds without board approval for his personal lawsuit and cutting his compensation by 95%, and maintaining control over a team of which at least one member has publicly said he will be fired if he loses this battle.
Yet through all of Mr. Pragad's personal woes and self-implicating attacks on Olivet, the newsroom has continuously turned a blind eye to questions about his involvement in alleged "crimes" at the center of the subject matter of all of their stories. What was Mr. Pragad's exact role in the "money laundering scheme" that IBT, Mr. Pragad's former organization, and Newsweek, his current one, were linked to while Mr. Pragad had active leadership and decision-making roles in both organizations? Why exactly was he accused of being the target of an investigation? Where was he during the "fentanyl" and "labor trafficking" episodes his publication claims occurred during the time of Mr. Pragad's church and university leadership?
Either Mr. Pragad has been willfully allowing his reporters to lie through their teeth about Olivet -- or Mr. Pragad himself is deeply implicated in every "scheme" his own publication has reported. But does Ms. Cooper dare to find out which is the case?
Ms. Cooper, a staunch Mr. Pragad adherent, has yet to fulfill her public vows to investigate her owner, and has consistently ignored these and other serious allegations against her onerous boss. Instead, her journalism and newsroom has served as Mr. Pragad's de facto mouthpiece.
It seems Mr. Pragad's sect leaders, including Ms. Cooper, Mr. Jamali, and Mr. Rouhandeh, are so deeply invested in his "harassment" campaign, that they have no qualms that their leader was formerly a high-profile member of the very Olivet church they now criticize as criminal.
This story was covered by HNGN's contributor writer, Ryan Lee, following the developing story of Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad.
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