Newsweek “Human Trafficking” Series Exposed as Fake News

Newsweek’s “Human Trafficking” Series Exposed as Fake News — Left to Right, Nancy Cooper, Editor-in-chief. Dev Pragad, Newsweek CEO. Naveed Jamali, Newsweek editor at large

On July 18th, the once venerable news magazine Newsweek published another story about a Christian university as a top headline, marking the fifth time it has gas-lit government officials, accreditors and the general public in pursuit of a series of "trafficking probe" articles on Olivet University.

The Monday story is the latest public attack against the University after Newsweek's Indian-born CEO Dev Pragad vowed a "nuclear attack" against the school and those associated with it in an escalating battle of fraud and lies as he futilely vies to take control of the company.

Their story, purporting to go inside the genesis of a visit to the school by authorities, brings no new substance to light and instead corroborates an HNGN report that Pragad, the CEO, personally reached out to Indian nationals as sources to assist his newsroom.

The piece fails to disclose its CEO's personal ties to the sources while feigning newsroom "independence," one in a multitude of ethical infractions that reveal Newsweek's deep bias, ultimately undermining the series and exposing it as fake news, and destroying Newsweek's credibility in the process.

More Questions than Answers

The latest Newsweek report focuses on events that happened in 2018, 4 years into the past, and on information no other publications deemed worthy of reporting, then or even now. This, coming on the heels of pieces from 2021 and 2019 also against the same subject, raises the question about why the Newsweek newsroom continuously chooses to headline stories from the past. Newsweek claims, without irony, that this was a matter of "national security."

While the affairs of a Bible school with several hundred annual graduates hardly rises to the level of national security, Newsweek Editors Nancy Cooper and Naveed Jamali have yet to acknowledge that weeks before the series began, their CEO Pragad threatened Johnathan Davis, the Newsweek shareholder, with this very coverage. Pragad said "I'll go to media about Olivet raid by DHS for human trafficking" if Davis didn't comply with Pragad's demands. Cooper did not include this important disclosure about its management's influence on the story. Instead, the Newsweek editors stated in April, they were unable to reach their own CEO for comment and "could not verify" alarming evidence Davis sent them. Since April, they have failed to receive any comment from CEO Pragad.

Pragad's own comments entwine his personal motives with the newsroom clearly, however. Pragad told a source before the series of articles began that "in no uncertain terms" he wanted the "shares of Newsweek... owned by the husband of the former president of the Christian university." If he didn't get his way, Pragad warned he would "detonate a nuclear bomb and kill [Davis and his associates]."

In April, after Davis refused to hand over his ownership to Pragad, the first Newsweek "trafficking" piece was published. Facts again skew deeply against Newsweek's "newsroom independence" because days after the first "nuclear" story was published, Pragad sent personal messages to former Olivet students from India, asking for information about troublesome students. He was interested in one student in particular, Rebecca Singh -- a coed who flunked out of the school after numerous infractions including theft, falsifying documents, and noise violations -- who incidentally would later become the main source for future Newsweek stories.

Meanwhile, as the CEO reached out to sources, Newsweek continued undeterred in its "trafficking" series of hit pieces against the school, tapping Editor-at-large Naveed Jamali, a former FBI double-agent who speaks about Muslim issues in the media, to agitate sources with the aim of publishing negative news on the Christian school. Jamali plowed ahead with the exact article series Pragad had weeks earlier threatened. Out of all news publications, only Newsweek published a story about this one-year-old raid under Jamali's byline, using anonymous sources. Homeland Security itself had not even released information about the raid nor its results -- nor even acknowledged the existence of the raid to the public. This gave rise to further questions about the sources of the "trafficking" allegations and their credibility, which Newsweek needed to answer.

With the burden of proof of the allegations falling squarely on Newsweek's editors, the magazine's headline story yesterday answered the question of the "trafficking" story source, confirming the identity of the 911 caller who "triggered" the investigation as Rebecca Singh -- the problem student Pragad personally sought -- with the extortion network of ex-students connected to her.

Singh is the very same girl Pragad was found to be digging up information about while in the midst of his legal battle against the Newsweek owner, Davis. This pattern of making threats that are carried out by the newsroom, and the active involvement of management in sourcing stories, raises alarming questions about Newsweek's dangerous CEO and his unethical newsroom.

First, what caused Newsweek to fail to investigate Pragad, his threats to mow down opponents like "puppies before a machine gun", and most critically, his direct outreach to troubled ex-students of Olivet University? Why is Pragad not held accountable for these actions? Why is the newsroom not asking him any of these serious questions, and what benefit are they receiving from him in response for being his cover up artists?

The onus is on Nancy Cooper to get to the bottom of this. Cooper recently published a statement declaring Newsweek's special obligation to investigate stories related to Newsweek itself, and yet has absolutely failed to produce a single meaningful response to such critical questions as these about her own boss throughout the duration of this entire series.

The statement goes on to express its commitment to "standard ethical practices," and mentions that Cooper and one "Dayan" committed to stay at Newsweek after they were promised they would have freedom to publish as they liked. It can be concluded that this "Dayan" is Dayan Candappa, a married man who was terminated from Reuters after a reporter complained to management that he demanded sexual favors in exchange for career promotions.

PHOTO OF DAYAN / NANCY — A collage screenshot from Youtube of Dayan Candappa (left) Nancy Cooper (Right)

Meanwhile, Cooper and Pragad have given reporters like Jamali and Alex Rouhandeh free rein to omit and downplay key information in their stories, publish defamatory statements against Olivet University and others, and repeatedly threaten and instigate sources against Olivet and Davis.

Second, given its recent reporting bias against Olivet, Newsweek's usage of yet another anonymous source -- under the pseudonym "Kevin" for the July 18th story -- must be deeply scrutinized. If this "Kevin" had a legitimate complaint, he could go to the police to file a report -- but Newsweek does not claim that he did so. This anonymous young man instead became the sole accuser for Newsweek's world-headline story. It appears as though Newsweek is not vetting these sources, but instead exploiting these young men and women to hype Newsweek's narrative about Olivet University having a problem when this is simply not true.

Inflammatory Language

Newsweek has repeatedly employed the technique of using inflammatory language in its series of attacks targeting Olivet University.

For example, Olivet's New York State Education Department (NYSED) permit was simply not extended -- and therefore was allowed to expire. But why did Newsweek exaggerate the truth by saying NYSED "shut down" Olivet University in New York?

Olivet University officials stated that their original purpose for appealing NYSED's decision was to correct the official record to reflect that NYSED based its decision on faulty and inappropriate reasoning. However, when the final decision was made to allow Olivet's permit to expire, Olivet embraced the decision. The university had already released a press statement expressing gratitude to NYSED for the opportunity to operate in New York over the past decade. Furthermore, Olivet's statement communicated that after investing over $70 million into the campus and making it debt-free, Olivet officials believed the property should be more than just a single university's branch campus in New York. Instead, it should serve a greater purpose, the university stated. The school viewed the NYSED decision as an opportunity to expedite the decades-long dream of Olivet to serve worldwide evangelicals in a single campus at the Evangelical Center.

This was not a "shutting down" in any sense of the phrase. Newsweek's usage of the words "shut down" betrays its newsroom bias and non-neutrality in reporting about Olivet. These words distort the actual facts, taking a simple expiration of permission to operate and making it sound like a bigger problem at Olivet, which actually is not the case.

Newsweek similarly attacks Olivet University for the already resolved Manhattan DA issue. Olivet University received two misdemeanors and paid its fine. Yet Newsweek repeatedly trumpeted this fact that Olivet paid a fine, as though it were national headline news. In comparison, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs have paid enormously high fines -- in the billions of dollars. Yet Newsweek does not report on those fines as vehemently as they do Olivet's. Newsweek has not criticized Bank of America and Goldman Sachs for legal proceedings and paying fines to such an extent, but repeatedly highlights Olivet's roughly $1 million dollar fine as national headline news -- a "national security" issue. Newsweek's stark contrast in choosing the frequency and tone of its articles for Olivet versus actual newsworthy issues and companies belies the real and dangerous bias in the Newsweek newsroom against the Christian university versus those secular companies.

GRAPHIC SHOWING BANK FINES — Violation Tracker Industry Chart of fines in history

Additionally, Newsweek has repeatedly claimed that the arrest of a former student named "Frank Lan" back in 2019 was related to Olivet Assembly USA, a denomination led by Olivet University graduates. This is another of Newsweek's false, blatantly biased, and repeatedly weaponized allegations. Olivet Assembly USA's statement on its website makes clear that the Assembly was not related to the matter. Newsweek also broke its own code of journalistic ethics when it did not reach out to Olivet Assembly USA for comment, which it is required to do when making a serious charge. Neither has Newsweek referenced the Assembly's statement for fairness and balance.

Olivet Assembly's Statement on Mischaracterizations in Newsweek's Article on June 27
The following is Olivet Assembly USA's statement in response to an article posted in Newsweek on June 27, 2022.
Olivet Assembly USA (OAUSA) has not been charged with any crime nor was it party to any investigation, nor linked to any criminal accusation, ever in its history, despite the false innuendo of Newsweek attempting to paint the picture as such. The piece ropes OAUSA into an article about an incident that happened three years ago about a church that has been long dissolved. While we are not surprised that the piece is written to benefit their CEO, Dev Pragad, we were very surprised that they did so by forgoing the integrity of basic journalism.
The piece written on June 27 by Newsweek as the top headline suggests that OAUSA was contacted but did not comment. This is simply not true. OAUSA did not receive any questions from any reporters from Newsweek on this matter. If they had reached out to us, as any journalist would have done, we would have corrected the numerous errors in their article.
OAUSA is not the "mother church" of Deer Park Community Church. Newsweek received inaccurate information from their source.
OAUSA is not connected to the incident involving Mr. Frank Lan. OAUSA has not authorized nor does it condone the sale of counterfeit items and such activity is a violation of the guidelines set forth in our Book of Order.
There are no e-commerce businesses in China working for OAUSA. Mr. Lan does not work for OAUSA.
Deer Park Church was not formed by Rev. Chiu's wife. It was incorporated by Mr. Lan's wife.
Rev. Chiu's quote on the unrelated mission between OAUSA and Olivet University has been taken out of context. The two organizations indeed have their distinct missions, board of directors, and operations, unrelated to each other. The two organizations may share the same statement of faith coming from the same evangelical root, but they are two independent organizations.
It is regretful that Newsweek would mischaracterize OAUSA, a denomination in the Presbyterian tradition whose faith stands on the Westminster Confession of Faith, as a sect, and a senior pastor as a cleric. This sensationalism would appear more like tabloid journalism than serious reporting. The article contains numerous other errors not mentioned in this statement. This kind of reporting raises serious questions about Newsweek's credibility and editorial integrity.
For any media inquiries, please contact Olivet Assembly at media@olivetassembly.org.

(Photo : OAUSA Statement )

In its series of articles against Olivet, Newsweek has also recklessly published outrageously false and reprehensible claims such as that students are "imprisoned" at the campus. This claim is completely fabricated as verified by overwhelming evidence indicating happy and peaceful students, including Rebecca Singh, at the campus.

Happy Photos from ESL teacher Facebook — Rebecca Singh (left) and Venezuelan ex-students, together with other friends, at a barbecue near Olivet's campus

happy photos from ESL teacher Sarah's facebook — Rebecca Singh (right) and Venezuelan ex-students (left), together with a friend, at a barbecue near Olivet's campus

The reporters even chose a city as far away as San Diego, 90 miles away, to portray Olivet's campus as "isolated." Nearly every city in California is far away from San Diego. Newsweek fails to mention that Olivet's campus is inside the town of Anza, and only 17 miles from the fast-growing city of Hemet, not to mention its proximity to Temecula and Palm Springs. Newsweek also failed to note that many happy and satisfied students study at Olivet University today, and many have graduated into successful Christian ministry work. That's because these facts would get in the way of the narrative that Newsweek has been pushing at the behest of its dangerous CEO.

Newsweek Credibility Already Disqualified

The public statements of Newsweek's CEO that vowed to use the newsroom to accomplish his goals should be a red flag to any reader, and anyone in its own newsroom that had integrity. But to make it crystal clear and beyond any doubt, on the 8th of July, weeks before the current article, Newsweek filed a lawsuit against Olivet University, seeking millions of dollars in an attempt to link it to debts that have nothing to do with the school.

The frivolous lawsuit has apparently been in the works for months and further highlights the lengths that Pragad will go to harm Davis, the school and other associates in pursuit of his selfish ambitions. The fact that the company has been preparing a lawsuit, apparently for months, seeking money against the same organizations its newsroom is writing negative articles about on a regular basis, disqualifies it completely as an impartial outlet.

On top of this, Cooper and others who feel they need to cover news about Newsweek's management and ownership, however, have repeatedly failed to uncover and report even the most basic facts about its CEO Pragad. The newsroom has been unable to contact him for any comment, though it is apparent he does send information and sources to the newsroom. It also failed to mention that Pragad was a dean at the very school he is using Newsweek to sue and to write articles against.

Newsweek Pushes Fake News Narrative about Olivet While Also Suing Olivet

The main issue with Newsweek's July 18 report is that it contained nothing "new" at all. The article, stripped of its inflammatory attacks, would read as follows: "One-and-a-half years ago, there was a raid on a Christian school based on false accusations. After finding no issue with the school, officers apologized for the raid, and no further action was taken." Comparing this neutral summary with the actual Newsweek story lays bare the influence that Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad's personal vendetta has had on the newsroom.

Newsweek's own failures reveal the extent to which the newsroom is being exploited by Newsweek's CEO. It has failed to investigate Pragad's personal contact with the sources of its series after his explicit threats to "kill" his enemies in the media. Editor-in-Chief Nancy Cooper failed to write a single word about this problem. Meanwhile, she issued a statement containing hundreds of words touting the newsroom's neutrality and freedom from management's influence, while publishing a series of articles that attack a Christian university for the benefit of Newsweek's CEO, including the most recent article based on a single anonymous source.

The Newsweek narrative appears designed to accomplish one goal, which is to declare a huge problem with Olivet University when there is none, while also trying to sue it for money in a frivolous lawsuit -- another conflict of interest that Newsweek fails to mention in its articles.

Newsweek Incites Accreditors Against a Christian University, Abandons Basic Journalistic Mandate

Newsweek reporters have also been contacting the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE), the accreditor of Olivet University. According to the latest article, Newsweek reporters have asked ABHE what "action" it would take against Olivet regarding the federal raid that happened over one year ago. This kind of questioning is beyond premature -- the Department of Homeland Security needs to go through its process of examining the veracity of allegations and publish a report as a result. Until that time, ABHE cannot help but wait for the government report, maintaining a neutral stance with the presumption of innocence. These two elements, the report and the presumption of innocence, are necessary for ABHE to make a fair decision. But Newsweek's reporters have repeatedly pressured ABHE through inappropriate and aggressive questions and phone calls to take action prematurely before seeing the result of the government's report. Furthermore, Newsweek's racketeering-like conduct, threats, and dangerous bias -- insinuating that Olivet has a problem and putting pressure on its accreditors, without any proof and before any report from the government -- could constitute criminal conduct.

Instead of trying to influence the government and accrediting agencies against Olivet University, Newsweek should criticize the fact that a federal raid was carried out on a Christian school based on false information. But Newsweek has utterly disposed of its basic journalistic mandate by taking the side of government power abuse, instead of criticizing it. In the case of the NYSED story, Newsweek took the side of state bureaucracy instead of chastising a decision made with false reasoning against a Christian school. A normal media publication would have criticized these acts of injustice, but not Newsweek. And churches are already paying careful attention to Newsweek's articles deliberately attacking a Christian university with bias and discrimination.

Newsweek Vilifies a Christian School, Needs Real Integrity to Investigate Newsweek CEO

The law requires that complaints go through a government agency to be evaluated fairly. Newsweek has intentionally hijacked these processes and distorted their results, through its articles about Olivet University following Pragad's threats and in furtherance of his lawsuit. The past Manhattan DA case was concluded with a clear resolution; the NYSED permission's expiration inspired Olivet to more quickly activate its longstanding plan to offer its New York campus for a greater purpose; and the raid that happened at Olivet's campus over one year ago was based on false information. Newsweek's articles about these matters do not take into account both sides in a balanced way, but falsely hype each of these as a big problem to pressure Olivet University's accreditors to take negative action against a healthy school. Readers must ask why Newsweek deliberately vilifies a Christian school this way.

There is no balance or fairness in the Newsweek articles about Olivet. Conclusively, the series has been debunked as agenda-driven fake news. Worse yet, by attacking a Christian university with unbalanced articles, Newsweek has proven itself cowardly. The real story is the lawsuit against Newsweek's CEO Dev Pragad, and the extreme steps Pragad has taken to exploit the newsroom for his personal benefit. But will the Newsweek newsroom ever breed the integrity and courage it needs to stand up to its own dangerous CEO?