Words cannot describe the feeling of jubilation that washed over me when I clicked on a link about a billboard fire in Portland, Oregon only to see PT News Network a.k.a. Freight Broker Live a.k.a. Steve Oatley's fat ugly face on it. I've been having issues with that guy ever since I doxed him a couple months back and although I indicated to him in private that I would avoid speaking about him after he repeatedly threatened me with frivolous lawsuits, I feel the need to say something about this before Steve has the opportunity to accuse me of having anything to do with it. I had absolutely nothing to do with this. I wasn't even watching the live streams tonight. I was working on another website before writing a couple articles for this one (about Linden Cameron and Hannah Fizer), then I checked out the Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War Open Beta on XBOX One X, then I went on Twitter and saw a Portland Police tweet saying something about a billboard fire, then I searched Google for "Portland billboard fire," and one of first things that came up was the video below.
Thank you Antifa! You just made my night. I was going to go to bed, but now I am full of energy. I have not always agreed with you guys, but tonight I am 100% anti-fascist. I can't remember the last time I was so proud to be from Portland. Steve knew that putting a pro-cop building up in Portland after spending months doing all he could to get Antifa busted was just asking for trouble and tonight he got it.
UPDATE: Here are some more videos showing the billboard completely destroyed. Nice work people! https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie/status/1318438430594924544
https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie/status/1318440060547592192
UPDATE: Steve said on Twitter "They actually just helped the billboard company by removing the old vandalized print before the new one goes up!" What he fails to mention is that Antifa did not help the billboard company by enhancing the print before torching it. We also believe that we have found an exclusive preview of what Steve's new billboard will look like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_TKeJtHYdI
UPDATE: Steve talked extensively about this on his live this morning (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-g4PT6YWTI) and said that he would not be putting up a new billboard at that location. He cites proximity to residential buildings and fire danger as the reasons. He said that when he put it up he thought that it would get vandalized but not burned. That makes sense. I think he put it up because he wanted a target in Portland that would get vandalized so that he could call himself a victim for the sake of publicity. Steve said it did exactly what he wanted it to do. It made national headlines. Those headlines are well worth the $1,500 he spent on the billboard. As a result his website got at least tens of thousands of visits as a direct result of the billboard being destroyed; his site profits from pay per click ads, affiliate ads, and direct sales; he received an unknown, but likely large number of donations; his social media following grew; and he received a large number of quality backlinks to his website that will significantly boost his organic search traffic for the rest of his life. This was a brilliant marketing move on his part. He realized that nothing could go wrong with the billboard because destroying it is the best thing that could have happened for his business.
Steve donates a lot of money to the police and claims that they are the real winners here, but the truth is that his philanthropy is commercial philanthropy. Commercial philanthropy that primarily exists for brand building purposes. Businesses like his donate to charity because it makes them look good and opens up new marketing channels. Every Tuesday Steve raises money for law enforcement as part of "Back the Blue Tuesday" and acts as if he is doing it just of for them, but what he does not mention is that while user donations go to the police he is profiting off advertising revenue, affiliate commissions, direct sales, and by building a following. Steve's philanthropy is clearly a marketing move for his business. Most businesses do the same thing because they realize that no matter how much they raise for charity that the act of raising the money will be profitable for them.