Roblox politics role-player fakes journalist credentials to sneak into White House press corps
Games Features White House press corps
Roblox, the online game platform pretty much every kid is glued to right now, is advertised with the tagline, “Powering Imagination.” This seems to bear out for at least one user, whose imagination was powered up well enough that they decided to fake press credentials in order to ask questions during recent White House press briefings.
The story of the citizen journalist in question, who uses the screen name Kacey “Lego” Montagu, was detailed by Politico in an article sure to inspire plastic-faced, blocky-shouldered Roblox players around the world. Montagu claims to be “an 18-year old law student from the United Kingdom who was born in the U.S.” They created a fake publication called White House News, pretended to have worked for The Daily Mail, and “[communicated] regularly with top White House reporters and has had several exchanges with White House officials.”
Since late last year, Montagu ran Twitter accounts called @whschedule and @whpoolreport (both now suspended) that attracted a following that included political journalists and members of the Biden administration. Last week at the news briefing, after asking to have their questions read by a “colleague” due to COVID safety precautions, Montagu achieved their goal.
While this kind of access could’ve been used to wreak havoc on the briefing, Montagu used their time to ask for information about construction on the White House lawn, presidential portrait unveilings, and the nature of Barack Obama’s involvement with Joe Biden’s administration. (A clip of these questions being asked is available here.) Not long after this, though, the press began to look further into Montagu’s credentials and the jig was up.
“I love journalism, and I think the Press Corps is a doing a pretty bad job at the moment,” Montagu told Politico. “So I decided I would ensure some transparency and ask some questions me and some friends wanted the answer to.” Montagu’s interest in politics apparently runs deep. They previously served as “Secretary Of State” on the nUSA Roblox role-playing group, which is basically an online version of a mock American government. Hilariously, they left that esteemed position over a disagreement with the nUSA President, who declared war on the U.K. in the role-playing group.
Montagu says they’re “not motivated by politics, but [are] socially liberal and conservative on economic issues.” Their online pals corroborate this side of Montagu’s story, saying they believe the whole deception was actually motivated by nothing more than wanting to have something to brag about on the internet.
Read more about the whole, bizarre affair over at Politico.
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16 Comments
“I love journalism, and I think the Press Corps is a doing a pretty bad job at the moment…So I decided I would ensure some transparency and ask some questions me and some friends wanted the answer to”…They previously served as “Secretary Of State” on the nUSA Roblox role-playing group, which is basically an online version of a mock American government.If you think shit is being run poorly, do the work and do it yourself. Earn the credentials and experience to actually get the job you want to do and do it better and stop jerking it in your mom’s basement.
Why bother? This kid just proved it’s all pointless:
Since late last year, Montagu ran Twitter accounts called @whschedule and @whpoolreport (both now suspended) that attracted a following that included political journalists and members of the Biden administration.
People are just mad because they wasted all that time and money to learn to do something as basic as asking questions. If anything, it calls into question the efficacy of our esteemed institutions of higher education.
He landed some hard hitters about construction on the White House lawn and portrait unveilings.
construction on the White House lawn
Meat Loaf’s lesser known follow-up to Paradise by the Dashboard Light.
Yeah! We need to make sure that the only people who get to ask softball questions in those press conferences are the ones who’ve gone through the traditional journalism school route.
I mean I’m glad he got to really land those gotcha questions about construction on the White House lawn and portrait unveilings. Looking forward to the articles he writes, on deadline, in addition to the 12 other stories he’s working on.
I… said they were softball questions.
The sole function of those credentialing organizations is to maintain the status quo by granting access to people who get with the program, and denying access to people who might rock the boat.IOW doing a bad job is the only way to get in the door.
The next time you need a doctor, lawyer, or architect I suspect you’ll feel somewhat differently.
The next time I need a doctor, I’ll probably feel something like “Do I really need a doctor, or could most of my care be done by a PA or NP at a fraction of the cost if the American Medical Association hadn’t lobbied the state legislature to limit what those people can do without an attending physician getting his cut?”The next time I need a lawyer, I’ll probably feel like “wow, there sure are a lot of laws criminalizing harmless behavior and complicating everyday transactions that require lawyers to navigate. And hey, there are also a whole lot of people with JDs in the legislature writing those laws. What an amazing coincidence!”The next time I need an architect I’ll be a fucking millionaire, and thus deeply ensconced in the status quo. So yes, I will be firmly on the side of gatekeeping credentialism.
While I take your point here, pretty sure this was just an IRL shitpost on his part.
Kid’s clearly trolling, though seems a lot of folks on here seem to believe he’s a real Woodward and Bernstein.
I mean, he can be a troll *and* the WH Press Corps can be (and is) bullshit. He could’ve made that point better had he actually been trying to make it.
Like…this is the same collection of people who took years (plural) to work up the balls to challenge Trump in any meaningful way.
As a former Model UN delegate, this speaks to me.
an 18-year old law studentAs a former 30-year old law student, I wonder if that’s even possible.
MINECRAFT RULES ROBLOX DROOLS!-my kids, probably