Think Progress has become the latest victim of a juvenile faux news hoax. Think Progress ran a story about how Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann proposed “Americanization” labor camps for Central American unaccompanied children. It quickly spread from Think Progress to other liberal sites, precisely what the “source” KCTV 7 had hoped. KCTV 7 is one of a number of fake news sites run by adolescent tricksters who relish spreading false stories. I have previously written about these sites and the type of low-grade “gotcha” pranks that motivate such people. It hardly takes a genius to set up a site that looks like a real news outfit and run stories to trick anyone who stumbles by on the Internet. I don’t find these pranks funny or impressive. I cannot understand how companies like WordPress give them a platform for such hoaxes or why the creators have not faced personal liability over their false stories.
The story quoted Bachmann as saying “I’m calling on all of us, Obama and Congress and everyone, to chip in and build special new facilities . . . ‘Americanization facilities,’ if you will. And we’d send these kids to these facilities, in Arizona and Texas and wherever else. And we’d get private sector business leaders to locate to those facilities and give these children low-risk jobs to do. And they’d learn about the American way of life, earn their keep, and everyone wins in the end.”
Raw Story reported that “However, it turns out that interview, often sourced to KCTV7, was plagiarized from an openly satirical site, The National Report. The KCTV7 report lifted large passages of the Bachmann “interview” and accompanying text from The National Report website verbatim.” National Report is the fake news site that I previously criticized. I honestly do not understand why these people find such pranks to be funny or worth so much effort. They degrade both media and Internet users. It is the equivalent to graffiti on the Internet.
Think Progress issued the following statement:
The news site KCTV7 News is a parody. Rep. Bachmann (R-MN) never made the statement. We sincerely regret the error.
The editors of the site relish these juvenile pranks. The site states “KCTV7 is a Kansas City news site that reports local and world news, as well as American politics.”
I am astonished that WordPress tolerates such fraudulent sites or that these people have not been sued for false light or defamation. If a site tricks people into buying false items or harming themselves, WordPress would presumably terminate the site. Yet, here is a group of people who work hard to spread false stories to embarrass people — often attributing harmful stories to people like Bachmann. I am less judgmental toward Think Progress as I am toward these juveniles and, by extension, WordPress that gives them access to victims.
Nick,
I agree that SNL is parody but my example of Palin shows that parody turns to reality for a lot of people. I don’t think the general public is as smart as we might wish.
Certainly sounds like some things the tea party queen has said in the past. Oh well, the crook cut a deal over major campaign finance violations and is leaving congress. She would like to hang around for impeachment hearings but she can’t.
The problem here is not WordPress or KCTV7, the problem lies with Think Progress. They ran this story because they wanted it to be true, it makes those ‘evil Republicans’ look bad. A competent editor would have taken the time to verify this story, but since this feeds the anger and hate of many of their readers, why bother? Fake, but accurate, correct?
“I don’t find these pranks funny or impressive. I cannot understand how companies like WordPress give them a platform for such hoaxes or why the creators have not faced personal liability over their false stories.” – JT
If there is any merit to their existence, it is the impetus to verify which they help to create.
An impetus to “prove all things” before believing them, and especially before reprinting or reposting them as if they were factual.
David Gregory had to eat his hat recently when he failed to do that, and fell victim to propaganda energies.
Jim, BIG difference w/ SNL. That is a parody and when you tune in you know that, unless you’re from Mars or Tibet. Same holds true w/ The Onion. Think Progress @ least contends they are a real news site. SNL and The Onion are comedy venues. Although, I have found TP and their readers pretty comical many times.
Some folks here love to use Think Progress as a link. Red meat left and right wing sites are both vulnerable to these frauds because they are not intellectually honest. JT is intellectually honest and he is often castigated for it. It is that intellectual honesty that drew myself and many others to this forum. Red meat leftists here don’t like his intellectual honesty. That is a badge of honor for someone w/ integrity.
What I take out of this post is JT’s derision for WordPress. His is philosophical. My problem is functionality and I’ve expressed it previously. From a commenters viewpoint, Blogger is much better. I never have comments eaten by their spam filter.
I’m not here to defend Think Progress or any false news site. But if you are going to go after them what about Saturday Night Live? SNL does fake news and puts out false quotes that the public takes as fact. One of the more recent famous ones is…
“I can see Russia from my house,” Something Palin never said but most people who hate her think she did.
What about John Stewart or the unoriginal English version of him John Oliver? These guys make a living off of taking things out of context and the libs eat it up. What about Micheal Moore? His lies are eaten as facts all day long. Although I might not like any of this, it is their right to do it. Shame on us for falling for it as fact.
Due diligence! You need solid evidence. Go back to 2011.
Newsweek under fire for Michele Bachmann (Crazy Eyes) cover photo.
The cover shot, which was taken especially for Newsweek, shows Bachmann staring wide-eyed into the camera with a caught-off-guard kind of smile against a bland blue background.
The bold white headline reads “The Queen of Rage.” Tina Brown is the magazine’s editor-in-chief.
But this is not the first controversial cover shot for Newsweek. The magazine featured a photo of the late Princess Diana, photo shopped to look older, walking alongside Kate Middleton,
in what one tweeter called “the creepiest magazine cover ever!”
LGBT doesn’t like her either. Check out some of the LGBT news stories and blogs. Some are true, and most are viscous and nasty.
They certainly like to take pot shots at Mrs. Bachman. She is a true blue American, who has raised about a dozen foster kids, plus her own kids, worked as a tax attorney, and a winning personality. She (like Palin) is among the worst nightmares of the statist utopia control-freaks in charge of of “culture” and public policy for the last decade.
God bless her.
Don’t we have court rulings that candidates and political parties can lie and don’t have to tell the truth? (“Free Speech !!”) So how is Think Progress any worse?
We all have different tastes in humor, and while this may not be your cup of tea I am a little shocked by your outrage. It’s a joke.
But what confuses me is your criticism of WordPress. How are you making that connection? WordPress is software that anyone can use. It’s readily available and open source so I don’t see how WordPress could prevent someone from using their software if they did object to the content. You don’t need to host your site at WordPress in order to use the WordPress software. You can host it anywhere. Maybe I am missing something, but I am not seeing the connection here.
Michael, Professor Turley is a Liberal in the classical sense. ‘Old school’ if you will. Any Liberal worth his salt holds both parties or sides accountable because to them partisan politics is an affront to common sense and integrity.
The question is Have for you is, Do YOU ever get disturbed or angry at what the left wing does? I have a feeling the answer is no. Because the other side is ‘evil’ and the ‘bad guys’ so its ok to hold your side to different standards and cheat in the process. Win at all costs. Right?
Definition of doublethink: “To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed….”- Orwell
Darren,
Have you talked to Chuck, lately? That’s cool, we all make mistakes, don’t we.
Darren,
“This is why it is incumbent upon news agencies to check their sources and not just copy and paste from the internet; which is usually more convenient to do than sending out reporters.”
Your brilliance is peaking!
C’mon, give us another discorded lions.
Too soon?
Think Progress is a hack site and was only too will to believe this story which is why they did not check it. They knew in their heart it was true. When I saw that Think Progress was reporting this story I knew it was not true. It did not realize they had bought someone elses fake story, but I knew it was not true, but Think Progress is an oxymoron.
You should be most critical of Think Progress, which tries to pass itself off as legitimate, not exercising even the most basic editorial checks.
The fake news sites can plead satire. What’s TP going to say other than they were too quick to bash one of those evil Republicans?
Must have been extremely painful to TP to apologize to Bachmann.
I won’t speak to the specifics of defamation but with all due respect to profesor Turley, I think that these types of gadfly articles are very important to the new media environment that we find ourselves in these days. All too often sites like this are more than willing to repost, reblog or copy and paste seemingly outrageous claims without checking the veracity of the source. It might be that you can say shame on the people who wrote the original “story” but doubley so on those that people otherwise trust to weed out such nonesense. If you can’t trust a site to do the basic due diligence to reject false stories even if they agree with their particular world view, how can you trust their “serious” reporting? This applies to all maner of sites and is not targeted at Think Progress specifically.
Michele Bachmann, the only politician worth less than Sarah Palin.
This is why it is incumbent upon news agencies to check their sources and not just copy and paste from the internet; which is usually more convenient to do than sending out reporters.
I find it interesting you choose to focus on this incident regarding Bachmann, about a quote that could easily have been her own handiwork. Are you ever so disturbed by right wing mischief?