Frank Parlato
James McGibney has discovered a formula: It’s very modern. Very Bullyville. Very stupid.
Buy a domain.
Make threats.
Declare “scorched earth.”
Deliver nothing.
I have a publication called FrankReport.com.
James McGibney runs BullyVille, which sounds like a place you’d avoid at night, or a Freudian confession. He announced via Instagram that he has bought a domain that sounds similar to my domain.
He has bought TheFrankReport.com.
Sandusky and the ‘Scorched Earth’ Threat
It is not his first crack at spoofing websites.
He bought jerrysandusky.net.
“I have launched http://www.jerrysandusky.net,” McGibney wrote,” which currently routes to a YouTube video describing how awful Sandusky truly is. As I build out the site on the backend, I will be meticulously illustrating what an absolute f*cking monster Sandusky is.”
Ah yes. The backend. That’s the promised land. That mysterious place where all investigations go to die and where all truth supposedly lives.
“Furthermore, I will also illustrate how much of a monster Parlato is for trying to get this pedophile out of prison.”
And then, because nothing says “serious investigator” like an All-Caps tantrum:
“On behalf of all of Jerry Sandusky’s victims, GO **** YOURSELF FRANK PARLATO….”
Instead of screaming like a rhesus monkey or a peacock in heat with Wi-Fi, I challenged McGibney to a public debate—on the evidence, the case, the facts.
He thought it wisest not to respond. Of course he did. Debates require preparation, and preparation interferes with threatening people on Instagram.
Instead of debating, he spoke of his own ferocity.
“I’m a bullying advocate because sometimes you have to be a bully to beat a bully… and I just happen to be the founder of Bullyville. I really like my odds.”
Beautiful logic. “I punch people because I’m against punching.” And he’s the oddsmaker too.
Then he uttered his emotional support phrase: The one he thinks makes him Patton:
“Believe me when I tell you, I’m about to go scorched earth.”
Jim, you’ve been “about to” for a decade.
McGibney Pivots to NXIVM
After Sandusky fizzled out—no debate, no investigation, no backend miracle—McGibney pivoted.
Same routine. This time: NXIVM.
McGibney uses AI too, but far less effectively. If he had a sense of humor, he’d laugh at himself for how he got the NXIVM-DOS branding scene so spectacularly wrong. But at least he placed himself as the branding master, instead of Raniere. That’s funny too.
McGibney’s NXIVM Claims vs. the Historical Record
“You wanted to f*ck around Frank,” he writes on Instagram, “and now you’re going to find out. And just wait until you see what surprise I have waiting for you once I launch http://www.nxivm.com.”
Always “once.”
Never “here it is.”
In the meantime, the backend looms large.
Then he issued a casting call:
“If you were the victim of the NXIVM sex cult (especially if you were the victim of convicted felon, Frank Parlato) and want to come on camera to tell your story, please feel free to reach out. This docuseries will be aired on a MAJOR platform.”
A major platform.
Always major.
Never named.
“I find it so interesting that convicted felon, and pedophile supporter, Frank Parlato likes to take the credit for taking down NXIVM. But that’s a lie, he didn’t take down shit.
“Frank was employed by NXIVM and covered his own ass once the truth started to come out about the perverted and despicable things that were happening to these women and young girls.”
Now pause.
Yes, where are the NXIVM “victims” of Frank Parlato? Why have the courts, the media, or the people in NXIVM not mentioned them at some point in the last 17 years?
Were they stuck in the backend?
As the NY Times reported, I broke the story that brought down Raniere.
Grokipedia summarizes the consensus view:
“Parlato’s work was instrumental in exposing the group’s exploitative practices, earning him credit as a key whistleblower who shifted public and legal focus toward the organization’s inner workings.”
The Historical Record (Also Known as Reality)
June 2017: Raniere publicly denounced me and banned followers from reading FrankReport.com.
October 2017: The New York Times credited me with breaking the NXIVM branding story.
March 2018: Keith Raniere was arrested in Mexico using warrants the FBI credited to my reporting.
HBO, Starz, Dateline, Investigation Discovery, American Greed — all credited my reporting.
From Cheaterville to Bullyville: Humiliation as a Business Model
Now let’s talk about McGibney. Before he became the nation’s leading expert in moral bullying, he ran a website called Cheaterville from 2011 to 2015.
Cheaterville allowed anyone to post unverified accusations, names, photos (including intimate ones), workplaces, and social media links about anyone.
The business model was elegant in its cruelty: Let people destroy reputations for free, then charge victims $199 per post to remove the content through a “reputation management” service.
Anyone could post naked pictures of anyone as revenge on McGibney’s site. If the woman did not like it, it was easy enough: She paid McGibney $199 and the Anti-Bullying hero would take it down.
McGibney told WIRED that the site generated about $20,000 per month.
He now runs Bullyville (2015-present), exposing and humiliating “bad actors” for clicks and payments.
His claim to dubious fame is Netflix’s The Most Hated Man on the Internet. The documentary foolishly positioned McGibney as the hero who “took down” Hunter Moore’s revenge porn empire.
It is not true. The truth is that the FBI arrested Moore in 2014 for conspiring to hack into women’s accounts to steal photos, not because McGibney gave a speech.
Before claiming to oppose Moore, McGibney was pleased to work with him. They were in the same business – blackmail or extortion, or a very close alternative.
McGibney bought advertising space for Cheaterville on Moore’s IsAnyoneUp site. McGibney later purchased Moore’s domain outright and redirected all traffic to Cheaterville to bully more women.
Same sewer. Different rat.
The Pattern: Domains, Threats, No Deliverables
So let’s review the résumé:
Fabricated military achievements
Inflated academic credentials
Ran humiliation-for-profit websites
Declared himself an anti-bullying hero
Bought TheFrankReport.com to impersonate FrankReport.com. (Let me be clear: he did not buy my site, FrankReport.com.)
He declared on Instagram: “As we like to say at #thefrankreport, ‘it’s time to be frank with each other.”
That’s adorable.
But, Jim, start with a mirror.
The Scorecard
Three websites announced. Three investigations promised. Three “scorched earth” campaigns declared. Zero debates accepted. Zero investigations delivered.
McGibney’s tactics have, however, inspired others.
Someone purchased Bullyville.gay and Bullyville.news and populated them with content. People say Joey Camp bought them. Maybe he did. Maybe he didn’t.
The headlines include:
“Semper Fi or Semper Fib?”
“#Cocks and Condoms: Inside the Bully Brotherhood”
“What Bullyville’s McGibney Really Did in the Marine Corps”
Turns out when you live by the domain, you die by the domain.
Either way — welcome to the McGibney Domain Circus.
Joining the Fun
So yes, I bought a few domains too.
DrJamesMcGibney.com — to honor his alleged online doctorate
BullyvilleNews.com
And the most honest domain of them all: Bullshitville.com
I doubt I’ll do anything with them. They cost $12 each; same as it cost McGibney.
What ‘Scorched Earth’ Really Means
As a codicil, I will add, James, you could accept my debate challenge: Anytime, anywhere, any fair moderator. I know, it’s not how you operate. You like buying domain names instead.
By the way, James, your favorite threat, ‘scorched earth,’ is a military term for what a retreating army does when it’s losing. They burn everything as they run.
It is not a strategy of conquest.
It is a confession. It’s not strength.
It’s panic dressed up as confidence.
So when someone keeps promising “scorched earth,” what they’re really saying is:
I don’t have evidence.
I don’t have arguments.
But I’m very loud.”
And that’s not a threat.
That’s a tell.
Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.
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Bullshitville.com is some primo Internet real estate. Well done Frank!