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This is a very strange Webworm which ends up in some familiar Webworm places. You’ve been warned. Stick with it. Maybe leave it for your Sunday morning long read in bed.

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David.

A foe appears.

Sometimes in life you make enemies — and it appears I have one by the name of Matt Obolensky. While I have a newsletter called “Webworm”, he has a newsletter called “David Farrier multiple lawsuits.”

Less catchy than Webworm, but it certainly paints a picture.

His first post is what caught my attention, and began like this:

You can read the whole thing here, and the piece contains a number of allegations against me:

“David Farrier, also known for doxxing innocent victims, has been subject of potential court action repeatedly, including after one of the victims of his slander, who also appeared in a movie he made on the subject of fetish tickling , had a heart attack and died. He hires a lawyer on retainer in New Zealand , the only defamation lawyer in New Zealand, who no innocent victim can afford the costs of taking on. It is a corruptness and vulnerability Farrier eagerly abuses to his subversive advantage.”

Obolensky is partly correct, and partly incorrect.

I do not dox people —

— but yes, I have been on the receiving end of court action by tickle fetishist David D’Amato, who did end up dying of a heart attack. As for painting D’Amato as “one of the victims of his slander”, well — Tickled wasn’t slander, it was a documentary about an abusive multi-millionaire who preyed on young men.

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And no, I do not have a lawyer on retainer in New Zealand. And while New Zealand may be small, we definitely have more than one defamation lawyer in the country — so if I did want to hire one (I don’t), I would have plenty to choose from.

Obolensky goes on:

“Farrier may be gay but he hates everyone who isn’t, even if they support LGBT. Take his recent social media attacks on American comedian Rob Schneider, who like his other victims, doesn’t know him. Point being these subersive [SIC] creatures of course don’t know their victims and lie that they may do . We in fact aren’t printing many victims names to protect them.”

Look, who gives a shit — but I am bisexual. And my recent social media attack on Rob Schneider? That must refer to piece I wrote about forgetting the time I met Rob Schneider. If forgetting Rob Schneider is a social media attack, then colour me guilty.

The piece goes on:

“Farrier, a New Zealand native, is so desperate for attention that he boasts to reporters that his approach if he does ever engage online with one, is to appear friendly, only to then provoke them and turn on his innocent subjects after he gains their trust.”  

This is… not true.

“He’s a real piece of work with a lengthy history of being sued for his defamatory tactics all across the globe.  In 2016, Farrier was served with a lawsuit DURING the question and answer discussion after screening his own film in Missouri, and witnessed by hundreds.”

I wouldn’t say I have a lengthly history of being sued, but yes — while I wasn’t served during a Q&A, I was served at a film festival once. Just once.

“Most would be embarrased [SIC] by that instead he tries to defend his bad behaviour like malignant sociopaths do.”

I don’t think I am a sociopath, but each to their own.

“In fact, most of the attorneys we contacted in New Zealand (It’s a small country) could not speak to us about Farrier because they either represented him or they had pending legal action against him.”

This is… a big load of shit.

“We’re talking about a guy who once boasted he sends out, “At least 100 Tweets a day,” creating havoc in peoples’ lives to then make fun of.  However, checking Farrier’s own Twitter account, he only posts a couple of times a day under his own name, so exactly how many aliases and fake accounts is Farrier using to play this ugly game?”

… and that is just quite funny. My memory is terrible, but I can’t imagine a situation where I’d boast about sending “at least 100 tweets a day” (although I probably do).

Anyway, Obolensky writes on and on, at one point getting stuck into my colleague Dylan (who also writes on Webworm from time to time):

“Reeve is the quieter, portly yes man to Farrier’s ringmaster, always ready to back up Farrier’s nonsense like the wimpy kid who hangs around with the schoolyard bully but never throws a punch, himself. But Farrier needs the gormless Reeve to gang up on people.”

While I like to think of myself as a ringmaster, Dylan still refuses to be trained — doing whatever the hell he wants. I ran this bit past Dylan, who told me “I want it specifically noted that I strongly contend that I am in fact gormful.”

Noted.

Obolensky then accuses both Dylan and myself of maliciously editing Wikipedia pages — something neither of us does.

“These downright troublemakers controlling the editorial space on Wikipedia, like New Zealanders mentioned above Derek Nottingham […] David Farrier and Dylan Reeve, whose modus operandi is to cause as much controversy  and commotion on Wikipedia (And Twitter, and elsewhere) as to totally destroy people, companies, or anyone they desire, across multiple sites for thier own attention.” 

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So who is Obolensky? Google returns no results. Like, literally no results for “Matt Obolensky”.

In desperation, Google suggests I try Matt “Kolensky”. So I guess Matt Obolensky remains a mystery.

Except… his writing style and chosen grievances do remind me a little bit of someone I’ve written about before: Anna Wilding.

Yes, this newsletter is a covert The Pretender part IV.

TL;DR: Over the last two decades Anna Wilding has stretched the truth somewhat, piling pieces of misinformation on top of each other until she got White House press credentials during Obama’s presidency.

It’s all hideously complicated and if you aren’t caught up, this is my series thus far:

The Pretender series:

1. The Pretender: Part I

2. The Pretender: Part II

3. The Pretender part III: Wilding v Wikipedia

These three articles were all previously paywalled, but with Matt Obolensky’s newsletter of accusations, it’s seems fair they are accessible to everyone so they can get all the background.

On top of this, Wilding has been emailing newsrooms about me. This is one such email, forwarded onto me by a newsroom:

Wilding’e email to NZ newsrooms, April 2nd, 2021

“I am a private individual. My name is Anna Wilding. I have included journalist and filmmaker David Farrier in a police statement I have against two other stalkers,as it is clear it is a crime.David Farrier - who I have never even met send his malicious fake blog on me  to 163000 followers.David Farrier made up malicious and misleading  fake stories, discredited my work, invalidated my work and told people I didn't do the work I very much did including White House Correspondent

[…]

Some deranged stalker guy, with a cheap badly written  blog..and how dare ANY of you defend him in the slightest bit just because you know him.

he literally defamed and slandered me and mislead other journalists and public and called me a Pretnder in wirting in order to make money on his blog..he is a lunatic. 

I am 30 plus years in business with.significant credentials on all sides of the camera and business and respected to boot..! What a way to treat kiwi success stories. he actually is attacking me and going out of his way to. He is clearly a  jelaous deranged fantatic who is obssessd with me. He even joined Muck Ruck after me!The guy is insane. My lawyer told him to cease and desist in 2016 after I had one brief interaction with him -I was so kind to him in a brief email -and he got so incredible nasty in return and kept attacking me and now he keeps stalking me-3 years later??WHO DOES THAT! .He needs mental health treatment .

If you know him tell him to stop and remove his blog post immedately. I have included him in a police statdment I have against two other stalkers,as it is clear it is a crime.

I am not afraid to press charges as he is fantatic and dangerours. 163000 people. Everything he wrote is fake and false. miselading and maliicious

[…]

The guy is crazy.I even forgot his name until it was clear he was stalking me andhis name was revealed..He has been pasting fake misleading blog lines behind the scenes everywhere.he is a criminal malvious blog pster,no differnt from Drmot Nottignham. IN additon Farrier is also breaching peoples privacy on USA sites such as The Muck Rack.

Anna Wilding.org

annawilding.world”

If you thought reaching out to newsrooms was unusual, this month she decided to tweet about it too, which saw Law & Order’s Vincent D’Onofrio spread her accusations. If you’re not a Criminal Intent fan, he also expertly played the bug farmer in Men in Black, and the Kingpin in Daredevil.

I did not expect him to become involved in this saga.

Wilding’s tweet is now deleted — but The Kingpin did appear to get on board (I assume he hasn’t read Webworm):

Curious to what she’d tweeted, some Wayback Machine’ing by Dylan Reeve led to her original, undeleted accusation — and shows how it ended up on the Criminal Intent star’s Twitter feed:

After Vincent did indeed “boost signal” Wilding’s post, a bunch of people waded in and replied (he has 308,000 followers), some offering advice on how to take my pieces down. I assume she got the advice she wanted, as she deleted all her orignal posts and responses.

She has also reached out to the New York Times’ excellent Taylor Lorenz about my “stupid little blog newsletter”:

Phew.

That is where this newsletter ends. For now. I will keep you updated on Anna Wilding (and Matt Obolensky) developments.

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Thanks for reading. Not to be dramatic, I feel like the world is slipping into chaos more and more every day.

David.