Molly Jong-Fast Had to Call the FBI Due to Death Threats After Joking About Reporting Relatives to FBI on Thanksgiving

Alex GriffingNov 24th, 2021, 5:06 pm
 

Author and journalist Molly Jong-Fast said on Wednesday, that after being “dragged” on Twitter for a joke in one of her recent articles, “she had to call the FBI because of all the death threats I’m getting.”

Jong-Fast, the daughter of feminist icon Erica Jong, noted that her need to call the FBI was “ironic,” given the fact that the quip in her article entitled “Deprogramming Your Relatives This Thanksgiving” read:

“Maybe you will change a heart of mind. Or maybe you’ll need to report a relative to the FBI.”

Mediaite reached out to Jong-Fast for comment and she confirmed that she had been getting “a lot of death threats” and had indeed reported them to the FBI. “It’s so scary,” she said, reiterating again that it was a joke “and it was meant to be funny.”

The article, the subhead of which has since been changed, was from Jong-Fast’s newly launched newsletter for The Atlantic.

Jong-Fast emphasized that the comment about calling the FBI was meant as a joke and not a suggestion that anyone should actually call the FBI after having turkey dinner together.

“It’s really horrible” she added, noting that a thread about it has popped up on 4Chan, a part of the dark web rife with conspiracy theories and far-right figures.

She explained her article centered around research she had seen suggesting it was possible to convince your relatives to get vaccinated and had found that hopeful. “But instead now, people want to kill me.”

Tom Nichols, Jong-Fast’s colleague at The Atlantic defended her, writing, “Because she wrote a newsletter post with a joke at the end of it. The right-wing tactic in the new age of constant bullying: To menace everyone else into silence – while claiming themselves to be the victims of ‘canceling.’”


Right-wing figures piled on criticism. Including former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis who called Jong-Fast a “useful idiot” and New York Post columnist Sohrab Ahmari suggested she is “deranged.”

Sarah Rumpf and Caleb Howe contributed reporting to this article

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Alex Griffing - Senior Editor

Alex Griffing is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Send tips via email: alexanderg@mediaite.com. Follow him on Twitter: @alexgriffing