Home Fake news report – Case studies

Fake news report – Case studies

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A supplement to SaveTheWest’s special report: “FAKE NEWS: What it is, who’s creating it, how to identify it, and how to help stop it”


By Jon Sutz, Editor, SaveTheWest.com

Case studies

(1) “VIDEO: Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches!” (shared by President Trump)

(2) “The GOP Has A Nazi Problem” (published by HuffPost)

(3) Democrats perpetrate almost all mass shootings (published by Ted Nugent, others)

(4) “Sweden Legalizes Child Marriages For Immigrants” (published by a notorious fake news site in Russia, shared by others)

(5) Justin Trudeau: “If you kill your enemies, they win” [UPDATED]

(6) Elizabeth Warren: “If women need to be raped by Muslims to prove our tolerance, so be it”

(7) Tariq Ramadan: “We are not here to adopt Western values, we are here to colonize”

(8) “Mueller Files 294 Sealed Indictments Against Elite Pedophile Ring Members”

(9) “BREAKING: Ted Nugent Hospitalized After Being Attacked By ‘Tolerant Liberals’ At A Charity Event” (published by fake site in Kosovo, shared by others)

(10) “Israeli troops kill Palestinians, harvest organs” (published by HuffPost)

(11) “13,506 Marines applied to work the White House last week. None applied over the last eight years, they had to be assigned!”

(12) “Bombshell: Roy Moore Accuser Beverly Nelson Admits She Forged Yearbook (published by Breitbart)

(13) “Ever since his election in 2005, [Mahmoud] Abbas has rejected violence” (published by The Economist)

(14) Trump: “If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.”

(15) Soros: “I am going to bring down the United States by funding black hate groups… they are the easiest to manipulate”

(16) “ICE confirms that deadly CA fires were set by illegal alien arrested & released 5 times by sanctuary city cops, ignoring ICE detainer requests each time” (published by fake site in Kosovo, derived from source story at Breitbart)

(17) “WATCH: Muslim mobs armed with machetes and bats terrorize London’s largest Jewish community” (published by Pamela Geller)

(18) “Police Raid Standing Rock Camp, Destroy Tipis and Are Burning What Remains”

(19) “U.S. Government Just Declared WAR On Native Americans, State Gives Cops the Green Light To Shoot DAPL Protesters On Sight” (published by fake site in Grand Cayman, shared by others)

(20) HuffPost perpetuated the lie that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted Congress’s invitation to address it, before President Obama had been notified

(21) “Polish first lady passes over Trump’s handshake” (published by the Washington Post)

(22) “There is no reproductive freedom without Net Neutrality” (published by NARAL, and shared by “social justice attorney” Sandra Fluke)

(23) “In his first 10 months, Trump told nearly six times as many falsehoods as Obama did during his entire presidency” (published by the New York Times)

(24) “Tax scam: GOP give themselves huge cut!” (published by Huffington Post)

(25) “Jeff Rothschild, VP of Facebook: ‘In order to finalize the New World Order we need a 3rd world war to exterminate 90% of the world’s population” (various sources)

(26) “Sharia law in Dearborn, Michigan – Muslim husband Beats Wife And Drags Her Behind Car” (published by “I Support Israel,” and various sources)

(27) “Jodie Foster: Attacking the rich is not envy, it’s self-defense.” (published by Occupy Democrats, others)

(28) “Your families’ taxes [are going to] go up because of this [tax] bill… you’re giving telecom companies and biggest banks in the country a really embarrassing amount of money” (claimed by Rachel Maddow)

(29) “Chelsae Clinton: I too moving the capitol of Israel.  Muslims have been around nearly two hundred years.  Jews and Israel started in 1969.” (published by fake site in Panama, shared by others)

(30) “Melania Trump Orders Removal of Near-200-Year-Old Tree From White House” (published by Newsweek)

(31) “Jerusalem is a center of three world religions” (published by the Washington Post)

(32) “Iranians hold pro-government rallies… a witness said” (published by CNN)

(33) (Sinister-looking) Israeli transportation minister whispers to (sinister-looking) Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu: “’10 dead’ as protests continue in Iran” (published by Reuters)

(34) “Kroger is providing a free $100 coupon to everyone!” (shared by various sources)

(35) “Muslim Doctor Refuses To Save A Christian Man’s Life On Flight From New York To Las Vegas” (published by fake site in Panama, shared by fake site in Kosovo, others)


(1) “VIDEO: Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches!” (shared by President Trump)

The focus of the case studies on this page is on those who create fake news, not those who share it on social media or through other means. This is in accordance with our definition of fake news.

However, when one of those “sharers” is the President of the United States, who has 44 million Twitter followers, that presents a special circumstance, causing us at SaveTheWest to classify him as a fake news creator, because whatever he Tweets is reasonably assumed to be truthful and contextual. Given this policy, we will call out President Trump for items he publishes that are demonstrably untrue.

On November 29, 2017, President Trump shared three items on Twitter, including the following video, which was titled:

“VIDEO: Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches!”

Here is a screencap of Trump’s re-Tweet:

The reality is that the perpetrator was neither a Muslim, nor a refugee, as confirmed by this Tweet from the Netherlands Embassy in Washington, DC:

The source of this Tweet, Jayda Fransen, is one of the leaders of a group called Britain First, which is widely decried as a racist, anti-Muslim activist group.  She also uses a fake picture of her appearing to stand hand-in-hand with President Trump on her Twitter page:

President Trump’s retweets of Britain First’s falsely-headlined video drew rapid consternation in the American and British press, including Prime Minister Teresa May.  In response, Trump said he didn’t know who Jayda Fransen was prior to sharing her fake Tweet.

Conclusion: It is beyond dispute that many major cities in Europe and elsewhere are experiencing skyrocketing crime rates, attributed largely to migrants from the Middle East and North Africa.  As noted in SaveTheWest’s special report, “Ten vital facts about the refugee crisis that every American should know,” Americans and Western Europeans have been consistently lied to and deceived about this fact from governmental, civic and “news” authorities about migrants, refugees and crime rates.

One example: since Sweden began accepting a practically unlimited number of immigrants from Muslim-majority nations several decades ago, it has become what law enforcement agencies have termed the “rape capital of the West,” and the vast majority of these crimes are perpetrated by migrants and refugees.  Yet this fact is little-known outside law enforcement communities, and is often dismissed by Western “news” figures as “Islamophobia” propaganda.

That said, the American people need to be assured that whatever their president says or publishes is true, accurate and contextual.  Unfortunately, this incident represents one of a series of false statements that President Trump has made, ironically, while at the same time blasting the U.S. news media for engaging in “fake news.” (That said, as documented in Case Study 23 on this page, the New York Times used its prestige as “the newspaper of record” to egregiously lie about the untruths told by President Trump, versus President Obama — thus giving legitimacy to his charge that it is a peddler of “fake news.”)

The effect and implications of this particular incident, however, were so serious that even one of Trump’s most outspoken foreign supporters, British journalist and author Melanie Phillips, blasted it as “beyond stupid and reckless”:

Beyond stupid and reckless: Trump’s pathological twitterhoea, by Melanie Phillips, November 29, 2017. Excerpt:

If Donald Trump really did re-tweet those three Britain First videos, I am utterly appalled.

He apparently shared three posts by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain first. The posts included unverified videos titled “Muslim Destroys a Statue of Virgin Mary!” and “Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches!”

A story has surfaced that the latter claim is untrue: the attacker was neither a migrant nor a Muslim. (Update: the Dutch government has said merely that he wasn’t a migrant but a Dutch citizen)

Did Trump blindly retweet the US journalist Ann Coulter, who retweeted this video yesterday and has one of the few Twitter accounts that Trump follows?

If so, this is beyond stupid, reckless and reprehensible. Trump has given an enormous boost to a group that should be treated as totally beyond the pale.

Britain First, which campaigns against the Islamisation of the UK, was founded in 2011 by former members of the neo-fascist British National Party. Earlier this month, Fransen was charged with using “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour” during speeches she made in Belfast. She will appear at Belfast Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 14 December.


(2) “The GOP Has A Nazi Problem” (published by HuffPost)

On April 12, 2017, HuffPost published this as its front page splash headline:

That shock headline led to this story page:

The GOP Has A Nazi Problem, by Paul Blumenthal, Huffington Post, April 12, 2017. Excerpt:

President Donald Trump continues to employ national security aide Sebastian Gorka despite a parade of evidence tying the counterterrorism adviser to Nazi-linked symbols, far-right politics and anti-Semitic political parties.

But Gorka, who was born in Britain to Hungarian parents in 1970, is far from the first Republican official with these sorts of ties. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, as Eastern Europeans who had fought the Soviet Union — many as part of explicitly Nazi or fascist-aligned groups — immigrated to the U.S., GOP officeholders sought their support.

At the time HuffPost published this “news” story, it knew, or should have known the following:

  • That Dr. Gorka has been one of the most outspoken defenders of Israel and Jews in America, and before that, in England.
  • That this allegation, which originated in a libelous, February 2017 screed in the far-left Jewish Daily Forward, had been repeatedly, substantively debunked in major U.S. media over the previous six weeks — including by Jewish organizations with whom Dr. Gorka has been affiliated.  The following are twelve such articles that obliterated the Forward’s smear, starting with pieces in The Hill and Forbes magazine.  They are presented in chronological order:

EU commissioner defends Trump aide against ‘false’ attacks, by Tibor Navracsics, The Hill, February 27, 2017.

Journalists Beware: Your War On Sebastian Gorka Is Only Hurting You, by Richard Miniter, Forbes, February 28, 2017.

In Hungary, Sebastian Gorka Fought and Tried to Undermine the Anti-Semitism of the Far-Right,
By David Reaboi, PJ Media, February 28, 2017.

Tale of Trump Adviser’s Alleged Nazi Ties Unravels; by Liel Leibovitz, The Tablet, March 16, 2017.

Latest Left-Wing Smear Against Sebastian Gorka Unravels, by Debra Heine, PJ Media, March 16, 2017.

ZOA: FORWARD’S Campaign Calling Trump Aide Gorka Anti-Semitic is a Lie – Gorka is Friend of Jews/Israel, Zionist Organization of America press release, March 17, 2017.

The ‘Forward’ is dead wrong, Gorka is a defender of Israel, Jews, by Bruce Abramson and Jeff Ballabon, The Jerusalem Post, March 17, 2017.

I Denounce the Shameful Slanders Against Sebastian Gorka, Friend of Israel, by David P. Goldman, PJ Media, March 17, 2017.

Sebastian Gorka: A True Friend to Israel and the Jewish People, by Sarah N. Stern, The Algemeiner, March 21, 2017. (Note: Stern is founder and president of the Endowment for Middle East Truth, a pro-Israel think tank.)

Anatomy of a Libel: The Forward Deploys the Weapons of Personal Destruction, by Bruce Abramson and Jeff Ballabon, The Jewish Press, March 22, 2017.

Gorka’s Opponents Owe Huge Apology for Distorting His Record, by Bruce Abramson and Jeff Ballabon, NewsMax, March 22, 2017.

The Latest Attack On Gorka Is Another Piece Of Shoddy Journalism, by David Harsanyi, The Federalist, April 4, 2017.


HuffPost apparently commissioned the one-of-a-kind swastika lapel pin depicted in its shock headline to be created, or Photoshopped, as if it were in wide use among Republicans, and proudly, publicly displayed

Further, it should be noted that HuffPost apparently commissioned the lapel pin depicted in its shock headline, showing an American flag and a Nazi flag unified in one metal object, to be made, or photo-manipulated, specifically for this smear article.  We base this allegation on the fact that a Google search of “lapel pin Nazi flag American flag” returned zero relevant results.  We also tried various other search strings, and encountered similar results: nothing.

The bottom line is, that pin apparently does not exist, is not for sale, and no member of the GOP has ever been photographed wearing it.  This image is, apparently, a completely fictitious creation, to advance HuffPost chronic incitement of hatred against anyone to its political right.

The irony: HuffPost is, itself, the West’s largest online inciter of hate against Israel and Jews

Lastly, HuffPost never retracted or apologized for its top-of-the-front-page smear against Dr. Gorka.  Which is grimly ironic, due to the fact that, by virtue of its immense reach and influence, HuffPost itself is a leading online inciter of hatred against Israel and Jews, as SaveTheWest recently documented, and about which major watchdog organizations, and about which top-tier Jewish watchdog organizations, including the ADL, AJC and Simon Wiesenthal Center, have complained:

SaveTheWest’s debut documentary: “The Huffington Post’s Anti-Semitic Bias and Incitement During the Third Intifada”

The Simon Weisenthal Center blasted HuffPost for “taking the art of lying to new depths,”

SWC Cooper - takes art of lying to new levels

… and for its false depiction of Israel as a malevolent aggressor.

SWC Cooper - slams contextless headline

Background: Don’t Be Fooled. Hezbollah Is Bigger and Badder Than Ever, Shai Oseran and Stéphane Cohen, TheTower.org, March 2014; Israel takes Hezbollah threats seriously, by Ben Caspit, Al-Monitor.com, March 26, 2015.

On two separate occasions, the Anti-Defamation League slammed HuffPost’s bias as “outrageous”:

ADL-war-push-complaint-2

ADL Dogan complaint

One ADL letter explicitly accused HuffPost of anti-Semitism (first screencap above):

“We are shocked that a version of the anti-Semitic theme that ‘Jews manipulate the U.S. government’ was boldly featured on your site.”

And the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, or CAMERA, exposed and corrected more than twelve false or misleading allegations that HuffPost made in one article, regarding Israel’s efforts to defend itself from Palestinian terrorism:

CAMERA Pillar of Defense debunking

Several independent blogs, Huffington Post Monitor and Huff-Watch, have also documented what they claim to be endemic anti-Semitic bias at HuffPost.

Conclusion

This was a particularly malicious, ugly and incitement-based fake news incident by HuffPost, but certainly not the only one.  This short video exposes more of HuffPost’s endemic lies:


(3) Democrats perpetrate almost all mass shootings (published by Ted Nugent, others)

In recent years, right-wing propagandists have generated social media posts and memes that claim the vast majority of high-profile gun crimes and mass shootings in America are perpetrated by Democrats, or leftists.  Several of the most popular memes are:

On September 13, 2015, musician Ted Nugent personally posted on Facebook this far more comprehensive list of alleged shootings by Democrats and left-wing criminals (which was still posted two years later, on December 7, 2017):

Ted Nugent

In 1865 a Democrat shot and killed Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States.
In 1881 a left wing radical Democrat shot James Garfield, President of the United States – who later died from the wound.
In 1963 a radical left wing socialist shot and killed John F. Kennedy, President of the United States.
In 1975 a left wing radical Democrat fired shots at Gerald Ford, President of the United States.
In 1983 a registered Democrat shot and wounded Ronald Reagan, President of the United States.
In 1984 James Hubert, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 22 people in a McDonalds restaurant.
In 1986 Patrick Sherrill, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 15 people in an Oklahoma post office.
In 1990 James Pough, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 10 people at a GMAC office.
In 1991 George Hennard, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 23 people in a Luby’s cafeteria in Killeen , TX.
In 1995 James Daniel Simpson, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 5 coworkers in a Texas laboratory.
In 1999 Larry Asbrook, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 8 people at a church service.
In 2001 a left wing radical Democrat fired shots at the White House in a failed attempt to kill George W. Bush, President of the US …
In 2003 Douglas Williams, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 7 people at a Lockheed Martin plant.
In 2007 a registered Democrat named Seung – Hui Cho, shot and killed 32 people in Virginia Tech.
In 2010 a mentally ill registered Democrat named Jared Lee Loughner, shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed 6 others.
In 2011 a registered Democrat named James Holmes, went into a movie theater and shot and killed 12 people.
In 2012 Andrew Engeldinger, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 7 people in Minneapolis.
In 2013 a registered Democrat named Adam Lanza, shot and killed 26 people in a school in Newtown , CT.
As recently as Sept 2013, an angry Democrat shot 12 at a Navy ship yard.

Clearly, there is a problem with Democrats and guns.

*Not one *NRA member, Tea Party member, or Republican conservative was involved in any of these shootings and murders.

*SOLUTION:* *It should be illegal for Democrats to own guns.*Best idea I’ve heard to date!

Nugent’s Facebook post was shared more than 75,000 times.  Between the content of this post being copied into identical ones, and pasted into emails, combined with the graphic meme variants, this allegation has likely been shared millions of times, and re-shared millions more.

The reality

Numerous fact-checkers have proven that most of the allegations contained in this meme, and dozens of variants of it, are either demonstrably false, or are based no evidence.

First, note that there is never any kind of source cited as the basis of the claims — let alone a credible one.  Second, cutting and pasting the copy of the basic claim leads to several comprehensive debunkings of it:

Are These Shooters All Democrats?, by MemePoliceman.com, December 10, 2015.

Is this List of Democrat Shooters Accurate?; A viral list of dozens of shootings purportedly committed by Democrats is based on faulty, inaccurate, and unsubstantiated claims, by Dan Evon, Snopes.com, June 22, 2017. (Note: Snopes has recently come under legitimate criticism for its left-wing bias and other matters; despite this, it often does very good work, as in this instance.)

Conclusion

There has been a documented explosion of political violence by left-of-center partisans in America, and around the world in the last several years.

What distinguishes this wave of violence by leftists is that it is often incited and morally justified by college professors and in some cases, influential “news” organizations.  This “mainstreaming” and “normalizing” of violence is unique to the left; there are no right-wing colleges that are openly facilitating professors and guest speakers who brazenly, emphatically advance violence laden-narratives, like “By Any Means Necessary,” or align with left-wing domestic terrorist groups like ANTIFA:

Criminal Justice Prof Justifies Antifa Violence

Dartmouth Professor Defends Antifa Violence

Some of America’s Top Colleges & Universities Have Allegedly Endorsed the Violent Antifa Movement

Antifa violence forces Berkeley campus police to rethink and modify their tactics

Left-Wing Writer Describes Scalise Shooting as ‘Self-Defense’

Antifa leader, teacher Yvonne Felarca arrested at ’empathy tent’ Berkeley brawl

Domestic Terror Threats: Media Mislead the Public

What is ‘Antifa’? And why is the media so reluctant to expose it?

That said, any criticism of leftists, or Democrats, should be based on demonstrable facts.  To do anything less, or to make up and spread alleged “facts” such as the ones behind this meme, only serves to:

  • Reveal anyone who spreads these lies as either malicious or gullible
  • Place anyone to the left-of-center as a victim of guilt-by-association, giving them the moral high ground
  • Delay the day when we can have an honest, fact-based discussion about the proliferation of leftist violence in America, and beyond

(4) “Sweden Legalizes Child Marriages For Immigrants” (published by a notorious fake news site in Russia, shared by others)

There are lots of valid reasons to be critical of what Sweden’s government and “news” industry have done to that once-peaceful nation, particularly regarding their refusal to acknowledge or effectively combat the well-documented, skyrocketing rates of rape and sexual assault by immigrants.

  • Sweden used to be one of the safest, most serene of European countries. Then, a few decades ago, it began accepting a practically unlimited number of immigrants from Muslim-majority nations. Since then, it has become the “rape capital of the West.”

  • The Swedish government now estimates that 25% of women there will be raped, and as research in Norway confirms, almost all of these rapes there are being perpetrated by immigrants from Muslim nations.
  • According to an October 2015 report, Sweden is rapidly heading towards collapse, as the cost and crime associated with immigration from Muslim nations continues to grow exponentially.
  • Major elements of Sweden’s “news” industry have been willfully complicit in whitewashing and denying this cultural assault, and attacking anyone who tries to responsibly voice concern, or opposition to it.

With all that in mind, upon seeing this meme, which I spotted on Facebook on November 27, 2017, one might wonder if Swedish authorities have really sunk so far as to legalize child marriage for (mostly Muslim) immigrants and refugees:

Clicking on that meme led to this page, at something called “EEUUTODAY.com”:

Notice that at the bottom of the page, there is only a canned description of a “news” site, that came with this website template (WordPress) – the publisher didn’t even bother to insert a name into the “About” section at lower left:

The “story” itself reads as follows:

Sweden Legalizes Child Marriages For Immigrants, by “admin”, October 21, 2017.  Excerpt:

Sweden has legalized child marriages for immigrant pedophiles who wish to stay married to their underaged wives.

In a move criticised by many as promoting pedophilia, the Swedish government have defended their controversial decision saying that the huge influx of immigrants from polygamous and ‘sexually diverse’ cultures has resulted in a sensitive ‘humanitarian’ crisis.

“We do not accept or condone child marriages, but the law also states that individual trials should be conducted in each case. Our assessment was that the girls could live with their men during the asylum process,” Karlskrona Social Committee chairperson Ingrid Hermansson said.

Sputniknews.com reports: This approach, however, was not shared by Camilla Brunsberg of the Conservative Party, who contended that the couples should have been dissolved. According to Brunsberg, the girls should have instead been placed in a residential care home for children and young persons, whereas their spouses should have been referred to the Migration Board’s asylum residence. Brunsberg argued that there was no other alternative, as all other solutions implied that Sweden was backtracking in its acceptance of child marriage.


The reality

“EEUUTODAY.com” is a fake news site.  Further, a WHOIS search at ICAAN reveals that “EEUUTODAY.com” is registered anonymously:

EEUUTODAY.com
Contact Information
Registrant Contact
Name: Domain Admin
Organization: Privacy Protect, LLC (PrivacyProtect.org)
Mailing Address: 10 Corporate Drive, Burlington MA 01803 US
Phone: +1.8022274003
Ext:
Fax:
Fax Ext:
Email: contact@privacyprotect.org

Further:

  • The “source” for this story, Sputnik News, is an notorious fake news site, that is owned and operated by the Russian government.
  • Both Sputnik News and RT (“Russia Today”), another “news” organization owned and controlled by the Russian government, were completed banned by Twitter in October 2017, for spreading fake news.

Here’s another version of the “story,” from “Extraordinary News” website (extraordinaryinfo.com):

And where is Extraordinary News registered?  In Macedonia: — where the primary languages spoken are Macedonian 66%, Albanian 32%, Turkish 3%, and Serbo-Croatian 2%:

extraordinaryinfo.com
Contact Information
Registrant Contact
Name: Marija Krsteva
Organization:
Mailing Address: Done Bozinov 13, Probistip 2210 MK (Macedonia)
Phone: +389.72304801
Ext:
Fax:
Fax Ext:
Email: zlatanovski17@yahoo.com

Here is the original version, at Sputnik:

Embracing New Cultures: Sweden Condones Child Marriage for Immigrants, SputnikNews.com, September 25, 2017.

A Google search of the term “Sweden legalizes child marriage” returns tens of thousands of articles, including from sites that are listed elsewhere on this page of fake-news purveyors — including YourNewsWire, Spesia, BareNakedIslam and others.


Conclusion

While freedom-loving people who are opposed to the systemic abuse and exploitation of children have good reason to be gravely concerned about what Sweden is doing to itself, sharing such incendiary falsehoods, replete with completely unrelated pictures, can only serve to:

  • Call into question the legitimacy of well-researched articles about the situation in Sweden — including the actual phenomenon of underage marriages among Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa
  • Poison the ability of reasonable people from different viewpoints to have a constructive discussion about Sweden’s laws pertaining to immigrants

(5) Justin Trudeau: “If you kill your enemies, they win” [UPDATED]

There are abundant reasons for legitimate criticism of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.  Most recently, his plan to “re-integrate” at least 60 ISIS terrorists who returned to Canada from Syria, yet are walking around, free, because of his policies, is stirring outrage, just as is his decision to pay tens of millions of dollars to suspected terrorists.

UPDATE, December 21, 2017:

Justin Trudeau On Returning ISIS Fighters: They’ll Be An ‘Extraordinarily Powerful Voice’ For Canada, byEmily Zanotti, Daily Wire, December 21, 2017.

Against that backdrop, I spotted this meme on Facebook on December 2, 2017.  It has been shared thousands of times:

A Google search using the string “If you kill your enemies, they win Justin Trudeau” returns thousands of citations — but not one of them contains a credible link to his having made this statement.

The most notable offender in this regard is The Rebel, a conservative Canadian website that has done some good reporting on actual scandals, and subversive actions by those who whitewash or sympathize with the threat of radical Islam.  In this case, however, The Rebel helped to spread this fake news — via this video, which has been viewed nearly 500,000 times.  See the 5:45 mark, and note that there is no attribution either on-screen for Trudeau’s alleged quote, nor in the text description beneath the video window on the YouTube page.

Conclusion: Posting lies about Trudeau, and quotes attributed to him for which there is no proof:

  • Discredits anyone who posts them
  • Positions him as a “victim”
  • Calls into question substantive criticisms of his actual statements and actions

(6) Elizabeth Warren: “If women need to be raped by Muslims to prove our tolerance, so be it”

There are no shortage of legitimate reasons for criticism of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.  While railing against “the 1%,” she made a fortune from flipping houses for exorbitant profits; she has falsely claimed to be of Native American heritage (and was recently called out by an actual Cherokee woman); not to mention her vehement support for socialist principles.

That said, when I saw this meme on December 2, 2017, it immediately set off red flags in my mind, because despite the plethora of ignorant, bombastic things she’s actually said (like this classic), I could not believe she said this:

“If women need to be raped by Muslims to prove our tolerance, so be it — then thank goodness for Planned Parenthood.”

A Google search of the string “If women need to be raped by Muslims to prove our tolerance, so be it” leads to dozens of “repeaters,” websites on which this quote is attributed to her, but none provide a credible link.

Conclusion: Posting lies about Sen. Warren, and quotes attributed to her for which there is no proof:

  • Discredits anyone who posts them
  • Positions her as a “victim”
  • Calls into question substantive criticisms of her actual statements and actions

(7) Tariq Ramadan: “We are not here to adopt Western values, we are here to colonize”

Tariq Ramadan is, according to research by the Investigative Project on Terrorism and Discover The Networks, has a long history of documented affiliations with radical Islamist organizations, including Hamas, and most recently was placed on suspension from his teaching position, due to multiple accusations of rape.

I spotted this meme on Facebook on October 20, 2017:

A Google search of the string “Tariq Ramadan We are not here to adopt Western values, we are here to colonize” leads to dozens of “repeaters,” websites on which this quote is attributed to him, but none provide a link.  One of the most notable of these sites, in terms of traffic, is Bare Naked Islam, which featured this splash headline:

MUSLIM SUPREMACIST TARIQ RAMADAN says, “We are not here to adopt Western values, we are here to colonize the U.S. (and Canada) and spread Islamic sharia law”

Yet nowhere on the page does Bare Naked Islam provide a credible link to support this allegation.

Conclusion: Posting lies about Ramadan, and quotes attributed to him for which there is no proof:

  • Discredits anyone who posts them
  • Positions him as a “victim”
  • Calls into question substantive criticisms of his actual statements and actions

(8) “Mueller Files 294 Sealed Indictments Against Elite Pedophile Ring Members”

Robert Mueller came under intense scrutiny in the fall of 2017.  As the special prosecutor investigating rumors of collusion between presidential candidate Donald Trump and the Russian government, Mueller has surrounded himself with Democratic operatives, some of whom have recently been revealed as hyper-partisan Democrats.

Numerous efforts by Democrats and leftists were mounted in the fall of 2017 to bolster Mueller’s reputation, and obfuscate attention to the drip-drip-drip of revelations of dishonest dealing within both the Department of Justice, and his investigative team.

It was within that context that the following item on Facebook caught my eye, on November 11, 2017 — because on the surface, it is nonsensical: Mueller has neither the mandate, nor the authority to issue indictments against anyone outside the scope of his investigation into President Trump.

Yet who wouldn’t want to see a notable government attorney conclude an nationwide investigation of pedophiles that resulted in nearly 300 indictments?

Note that the “source” of this story is “YourNewsWire.com,” a notorious fake news website.  Clicking on that link led to this “story” page:

Mueller Files 294 Sealed Indictments Against Elite Pedophile Ring Members, by Sean Adl-Tabatabai, YourNewsWire.com, November 10, 2017.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has filed an astonishing 294 more sealed indictments to Federal Courts around the U.S. against high-level pedophiles operating within Hollywood and D.C.

According to a legal expert, 294 sealed indictments in such a short space of time is completely unheard of.

Halturnerradioshow.com reports: Between the 294 Indictments now located across the country PLUS the 81 in Washington, DC and in Eastern Virginia, that’s almost 400 Sealed Indictments. The lawyer told me this number is “off the charts . . . .no one has seen anything like this.”

This is not dis-info, it is fact. Sealed indictments are verifiable public record. We don’t know whats in them yet, but you can see they are there and it’s sure as heck not normal, it’s unprecedented. There has never been this many at once . . . ever.

Note also that the “source” of this story is “Hal Turner,” whose bio you’d have to see to believe, to grasp how non-credible this entire story is.

Yet as shown on “YourNewsWire’s” page, this “news” story has been shared more than 13,000 times on Facebook alone:

Googling the string “Mueller Files 294 Sealed Indictments Against Elite Pedophile Ring Members” produces nearly 30,000 returns.

Click on the “Video” tab, and more than 1,000 items pop up.

Search Google’s images, and those on Pinterest, Instagram and other social media platforms, and you begin to see that this “news” story was shared tens if not hundreds of thousands of times, in less than thirty days, from late November through December 2017.

Conclusion: This is fake news, posted by one of the most notorious fake news websites. . Distinguishing this incident, however, is the fact that posting lies to bolster Mueller’s reputation comes at a curious time — when he is coming under severe, justifiable criticism for:

  • The way he is conducting the investigation into alleged Trump collusion with Russians
  • The fact that a high-ranking official in the FBI, who interviewed Sec. Clinton, and played a major role in leading the Trump investigation under President Obama, is being revealed as a hyper-partisan Democrat and Trump-hater

Who benefits from attempting to burnish Mueller’s reputation, through fake news, at this particular moment in time?  We don’t know – but it’s a question worth asking, because this fake news story contains very specific allegations, that are designed to draw the praise of anyone, beyond party politics, to protect children.


(9) “BREAKING: Ted Nugent Hospitalized After Being Attacked By ‘Tolerant Liberals’ At A Charity Event” (published by fake site in Kosovo, shared by others)

Since January 2016, there has been a documented wave, and escalation, of violent attacks and threats by so-called “liberals” in America, against anyone who dares to disagree with them — a number of which were caught on video:

WATCH: El Cajon Protesters Beat & Chase Trump Supporter, by Heavy.com, September 29, 2016.

VIDEO: Anti-Trump Rioters Bash Pregnant Woman’s Car Trapping Her Inside, by Chase Stephens, The Daily Wire, November 15, 2016.

‘I’ve never experienced anything like it’: War photojournalist is hospitalized after savage beating by four anti-Trump activists while covering the protests in Oakland, by Emily Crane and James Wilkinson, Dailymail.com, November 10, 2016.

Every American, regardless of political orientation, has good reason to be shocked and repulsed by so-called “liberal” activists’ initiation of violence.

Spreading fake news about violent “liberal” attacks, however, especially against pop stars, only serves to simultaneously incite hatred on a false basis, while casting doubt on reports of actual incidents.

On December 6, 2017, I spotted this on Facebook:

At the bottom, it indicates the source for this “story” is something called “World-Newss.com” (note the extra “s” in “news”).  Clicking on that “story” led to this page:

At the bottom of the page, is the “source” link, to this page; note that this “story” has been shared nearly 42,000 times in the 12 days since it was published, on November 25, 2017.  Note also that there is no author attributed to this “story,” which employs the term “libtards” to describe Nugent’s alleged attackers:

BREAKING: Ted Nugent Hospitalized After Being Attacked By ‘Tolerant Liberals’ At A Charity Event, November 25, 2017:

Classic rocker and conservative icon Ted Nugent was hospitalized late last night after he was attacked while performing at a charity event. Nugent had just finished praising President Trump’s decision to allow sportsmen to import their trophies from Africa.

Liberal social justice warriors, thinking stopping the ivory trade will somehow stop hunters from taking big game, decided that even though this was a charity event for the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital in Portland, Maine, Ted Nugent had to be stopped.

They rushed the stage and tackled Nugent to the ground, beating and kicking him. Security stopped the attack after about three minutes and 11 libtards were arrested. Nugent went to his hotel with his wife. After a few hours, Nugent was feeling dizzy and nauseous, so they went to the ER at Mercy General.

The Doctor on call admitted Nugent and released this statement:

“MR. NUGENT HAS INTERNAL INJURIES AS WELL AS A CONCUSSION. WHILE HIS INJURIES DON’T APPEAR LIFE-THREATENING, THE FIRST 24 HOURS AFTER THIS SEVERE A BEATING ARE CRUCIAL. HE WILL BE KEPT IN THE ICU IN A MEDICALLY INDUCED COMA. WE HAVE HIS CONDITION LISTED AS GUARDED.”

Ted’s wife, Louanne, says she talked to him before he went under and he was in good spirits. She said he’s strong and isn’t going anywhere. Thoughts and prayers for you and your family, Ted!

At the bottom of this page, is a link to the story’s alleged “source”:

Source : politicstraight.website

That page contains the exact same story, unattributed, with no supporting links.

The reality

So who is behind “World-Newss.com”?  A WHOIS search at ICAAN reveals that the site is owned by another user in Kosovo:

World-Newss.com
Contact Information
Registrant Contact
Name: Amir Rama
Organization:
Mailing Address: Tahir Zemaj, fush kosov kosovo 12000 AL
Phone: +355.45584666
Ext:
Fax:
Fax Ext:
Email: amirrama1516@outlook.com

Further, a simple Google search using the string “Ted Nugent hospitalized liberal attack charity” leads to nearly 23,000 returns — which consist of:

  • “Repeater” fake sites
  • Conservative sites that fell for the hoax, some of which notified their readers that they’d been misled

This “news” story should have never been published anywhere outside of these fake sites, and certainly not shared more than 40,000 times by gullible readers, without checking it out.


(10) “Israeli troops kill Palestinians, harvest organs” (published by HuffPost)

Background: As noted in Case Study 2, HuffPost is one of the Western world’s largest online inciters of hatred against Israel and Jews.

On August 19, 2009, HuffPost published this alleged “news” story on its front page:

harvest-organsThe reality

HuffPost knew, before it published this classic anti-Semitic blood libel, that the “journalist” who wrote this “story” openly admitted — in the story itself — that he had “no idea, no clue” if the allegation is true or not:

Interviewed on Israel Radio on Wednesday, [Donald] Bostrom said he was worried by the allegations he reported but could not vouch for their accuracy. “It concerns me, to the extent that I want it to be investigated, that’s true. But whether it’s true or not – I have no idea, I have no clue,” he told the station.

Also, this picture was completely unrelated to the original story. HuffPost sought out one that would incite the most hatred against Jews.

The original article, which appeared on Sweden’s notorious smear paper, Aftonebet, included several pictures — none of which HuffPost chose to use.  Instead, HuffPost’s editors opted to search for a picture that would add that last bit of anti-Semitic incitement to the “story.” In this case, they found and used one that shows grinning IDF soldiers marching towards the camera, presumably gleeful over having murdered more Palestinians and stealing their organs — and another, which it used to promote this “story” atop its other top story pages of the day, showing an IDF soldier praying next to a tank:

blood-libel-top-page-teaser2

Soon after HuffPost published this “story,” physicians from around the world debunked the medical aspects of it as “impossible,” and the Palestinian family cited in the story claimed they never made this allegation. More debunking here.

HuffPost never published an update to the “story,” nor did it apologize to its readers, to Jews, or to Israel and the IDF. Instead, by the time this SaveTheWest report was written, HuffPost had simply removed it.

Conclusion

Rather than being an isolated incident, this was merely part of HuffPost’s ongoing work to defame Jews — and help incite and justify Palestinian terrorist attacks on them.  For details, see this two-minute trailer from SaveTheWest’s 2016 documentary, “The Huffington Post’s Anti-Semitic Bias and Incitement During the Third Intifada”:

Also see:

HuffPost’s use of anti-Semitic bias and incitement to help “sell” the Iran “deal”


(11) “13,506 Marines applied to work the White House last week. None applied over the last eight years, they had to be assigned!”

Soon after President Trump took office in January 2017, numerous variants of the following meme began appearing on social media, making this same, very specific claim:

The memes were posted by numerous parties, among them Conservative Veterans of America, Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children (first image), and many other right-of-center sites.

The reality

There is nothing whatsoever to support this allegation.  Neither these memes, nor the comments that users wrote when publishing them, contained a single link (credible or otherwise) to support the claim.

Furthermore:

  • The U.S. military is an apolitical organization, it serves no party or candidate.  Its only mandate is to follow the orders of the Commander in Chief, and their chain of command, to preserve, protect and defend our Constitution.  Any attempt to politicize any branch of the military is an insult to it, and the Department of Defense as a whole.
  • The United States Marine Corps, just like the other branches of our military, is comprised of Republicans, Democrats, independents, and supporters of other minority parties.  The mere suggestion that not a single Marine volunteered for White House duty during President Obama’s two terms is an insult to the entire organization.
  • Given that this is an administrative matter, such requests would not be publicly available, and anyone who discloses such data would be violating any of a number of federal laws.
Conclusion

Whatever fake news memes travel through social media, patriotic Americans should be especially careful to not share fake data concerning the U.S. military. The net result of sharing this fake news meme was only to falsely claim that the U.S. Marine Corps is a highly partisan organization, devoted to serving President Trump, when anyone who knows anything about American soldiers knows that they will faithfully and courageously serve whoever is elected as their Commander in Chief, regardless of his or her party affiliation.


(12) “Bombshell: Roy Moore Accuser Beverly Nelson Admits She Forged Yearbook (published by Breitbart)

Background: There are plenty of reasons to oppose Alabama Senatorial candidate Roy Moore – on policy. He has openly called for laws to be passed making homosexuality a criminal offense, and he believes taxpayer-funded institutions, such as courthouses and schools, should display Christian or Judeo-Christian iconography. Further, numerous women have claimed –only since he announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate — that Mr. Moore pursued or sexually assaulted them when they were under 18, and he was in his 30s, nearly four decades ago.  While there is no proof for any of these allegations, and they tend to be cast under a pall of suspicion given that these women said nothing over the previous forty years, during his previous campaigns for public office, taken together, all of the above would give any reasonable, Constitutionally-minded American cause for great concern about Mr. Moore.

This incident

On December 8, 2017, Breitbart published the following headline, which was heavily promoted on social media by it and other right-wing websites:

Excerpt from the story, containing the entire, verbatim opening, including a source video from ABC News:

Bombshell: Roy Moore Accuser Beverly Nelson Admits She Forged Yearbook, by John Nolte, Breitbart.com, December 8, 2017.

Beverly Young Nelson has finally admitted that she forged a portion of the infamous high school yearbook that she and attorney Gloria Allred used as proof of her accusations against U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore.

And in yet another blow to the credibility of ABC News, the disgraced, left-wing network downplayed the bombshell by presenting this admission of forgery as adding “notes” to the inscription. Worse still, the reporter actually coaches Nelson, puts words in her mouth, downplay the enormous significance of her deceit.

“Nelson admits she did make notes to the inscription,” ABC News tells us. “But the message was all Roy Moore.”

“Beverly, he signed your yearbook,” ABC News reporter Tom Llamas says.

“He did sign it,” she replies.

“And you made some notes underneath.”

“Yes,” Nelson says.

And then, after a woman admits to forging a document used in a campaign to destroy the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Alabama, ABC News quickly moves on as though it is not news of extraordinary consequence.

The reality

Breitbart’s own article reveals the reality behind this shock headline: that its allegation that Beverly Young Nelson “forged” the yearbook is false, fake news.  Here are the facts:

  • The handwriting in the inscription appears to be identical to that of Roy Moore, during the time period in question.
  • The handwriting in the postscript below the inscription, regarding the location and date, is clearly from a different hand.
  • It was incumbent upon Ms. Nelson to state, up front, at the time she put her yearbook into the public domain, that she had added the note beneath the inscription, to memorialize when and where it was written. The fact that she did not calls everything she says into question.
  • The fact that Ms. Nelson was not up-front about the postscript in no way indicates or even suggests that the inscription itself is “forged.”
  • The fact that Ms. Nelson and her attorney, the infamous Gloria Allred, would not allow the yearbook to be examined by a handwriting expert, casts further doubt onto the credibility of their allegations.
Conclusion

There are plenty of good reasons to be dubious of  both Ms. Nelson, and her choice of the notorious Gloria Allred to represent her in this matter.  Had Breitbart just stuck to those verifiable reasons, and the content in its own article, it would have been doing a decent job to frame this new development, regarding the postscript.

Instead, whoever wrote and approved the headline for the article decided to discredit it, and Breitbart itself, by claiming that the yearbook inscription in question — as a whole — was “forged.”

Then, when it was picked up by other sites, such as Gateway Pundit, another popular Trump-supporting far right blog site, it ratcheted up the bombthrowing, and from there, the allegation that “the yearbook was forged” went viral, led in part by the notorious Alex Jones, on Facebook:

UPDATE 1: Several conservative websites, including the Washington Examiner and Twitchy, in addition to PolitiFact, also called out Breitbart for this bombthrowing fake news:

It’s inaccurate to label Moore accuser a ‘forger’, by Becket Adams, Washington Examiner, December 8, 2017.

PSA: No, Beverly Young Nelson did NOT admit she ‘forged’ Roy Moore’s yearbook entry, by Sarah D., Twitchy, December 8, 2017.

No, Roy Moore accuser didn’t admit she forged his signature in her yearbook, by Manuela Tobias, PolitiFact, December 8th, 2017.

UPDATE 2: Gateway Pundit jumps on board — but also makes an excellent point about Facebook’s policies and enforcement

On December 9, 2017, the popular right-wing blog Gateway Pundit published the following headline:

Gateway Pundit and Breitbart Were Right: Allred Lied and Accuser FORGED Signature=> Far Left Politifact and Facebook Need to Issue Correction,

Although this article continues the same, failed argument that Nelson “forged” Moore’s signature, it did make a good point about Facebook’s hyper-biased standards: it removed Breitbart’s and Gateway Pundit’s posts regarding this matter, for violating its policies regarding “fake news” — which we concur it was.  However, if Facebook is going to establish such a standard, it need to enforce it fairly and without bias, which it clearly does not, as SaveTheWest documented in 2016, regarding its willingness to enable Islamist terrorism supporters to post virulent anti-Semitic hate material — but bans their critics:

Why does Facebook enable Palestinians to incite & glorify anti-Semitic terrorism, but bans users who don’t?

Did Facebook’s continued enabling of anti-Semitic terror-incitement groups result in recent attacks?

This phenomenon was preceded by a blockbuster investigative video produced by the Israel Law Center (Shurat Hadin), in January 2016:

 


(13) “Ever since his election in 2005, [Mahmoud] Abbas has rejected violence” (published by The Economist)

On December 7, 2017, The Economist published the following analysis:

The world reacts to Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital; A campaign promise kept, a problem aggravated, The Economist, December 7th 2017. Excerpt:

Ever since his election in 2005, Mr Abbas has rejected violence and called upon his people to pursue statehood through diplomacy. Now the calls from within the Palestinian national movement for a return to intifada, ie, a violent uprising, are growing.

Adam Levick, a journalist with CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), demolished this fake news, at the Jewish newspaper The Algemeiner:

The claim that Abbas has “rejected violence” for the past 12 years mirrors a popular — but completely erroneous — media theme about the Palestinian movement since the death of Yasser Arafat. This narrative is one that was repeated recently by former US Secretary of State John Kerry.

But the facts tell a different story.

As his Fatah Party, and countless Palestinian officials, continually incite terror against Jewish civilians, Abbas himself — despite calling for peace at times in English — routinely (in Arabic) glorifies Palestinian terrorists who commit deadly attacks. Abbas has also sent messages to Palestinian society encouraging more violence.

Here are just a few examples:

♦ In 2014, he gave a speech promoting violence in the name of Islam.

♦ That same year, he told Palestinians to use any means necessary to prevent Jews from “defiling” Muslim holy places.

♦ In September 2015, Abbashailed Palestinian rioters on the Temple Mount, saying that any blood spilled in “defense” of the holy site was “pure.”

♦ The following month, Abbas gave a speech justifying violence related to the Temple Mount, including the murder of Israelis, as a legitimate “defense” of Al-Aqsa.

♦ In 2016, he praised as a “martyr” a young Palestinian woman who attempted to kill an Israeli soldier in a car-ramming attack, writing: “We see in her a martyr who watered the pure earth of Palestine with her blood.”

♦ In July 2017, he encouraged ongoing violent rioting over Al-Aqsa, even after Israel removed controversial metal detectors from the Temple Mount; those detectors were installed following a deadly Palestinian terror attack on the compound.

Bottom line: The Economist’s claim that the Palestinian president has “rejected violence” since 2005 fails to pass even the most minimum critical scrutiny.

Conclusion

Unlike many of the fake news sites, and right-wing and left-wing propaganda sites that are featured in the case studies on this page, The Economist is touted as being one of the world’s most trusted news publications.

The fact that The Economist would publish such a demonstrable lie, about a matter so consequential, that whitewashes one of the world’s leading anti-Semitic terrorists, who openly admits he uses billions of dollars in Western “humanitarian aid” money to incite, justify and compensate Islamist terrorism against Jews, reveals the publication for what it actually is: a peddler of terrorism-enabling fake news.


(14) Trump: “If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.”

This meme has traveled through social media since Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency in 2015.  I spotted this on Facebook on November 29, 2017:

There are nearly a dozen variations of this meme; here is a sampling:

The reality

This fake meme has been debunked since 2015 by both right-wing and left-wing websites and fact checkers, including:


(15) Soros: “I am going to bring down the United States by funding black hate groups… they are the easiest to manipulate”

Background

There is no shortage of reasons to be vehemently opposed to radical leftist billionaire George Soros.   Here are some background articles on who he is, what he believes, and what he funds:

Legal Insurrection: The vast left-wing conspiracy got $18 billion more from George Soros

DiscoverTheNetworks: George Soros

DiscoverTheNetworks: Guide To The George Soros Network

Judicial Watch: On Watch: George Soros & Leftist Subversion in Guatemala

This incident

Staring in 2014, numerous variations of memes alleging that Soros said the following in an interview with Germany’s Bild magazine, began appearing on right-wing social media:

“I am going to bring down the United States by funding Black Hate groups. We’ll put them into a mental trap and make them hate White people. The Black community is the easiest to manipulate.”

The reality

Let us divide this alleged quote into two parts: the quote itself, and the allegation that Soros is funding “Black hate groups.”  Here’s what we know:

(1) The quote: It is a fraud.  Soros never said this.  Although a Google search of the string containing the entire quote returns lots of results, none have a link to the alleged Bild source.

(2) The allegation that Soros is funding “Black hate groups”: This is a lot murkier, and the right-wing propagandists have done a lot to further discredit themselves by being all over the map with allegations — but very little demonstrable proof.

The main “source” for this claim is an article in the Washington Times:

George Soros funds Ferguson protests, hopes to spur civil action; Liberal billionaire gave at least $33 million in one year to groups that emboldened activists, by Kelly Riddell, The Washington Times, January 14, 2015.

This claim was then repeated in the Daily Mail (UK), and went viral on social media:

Billionaire George Soros spent $33MILLION bankrolling Ferguson demonstrators to create ‘echo chamber’ and drive national protests, by Kieran Corcoran, Daily Mail, January 16, 2015.

The problem is, the Washington Times article contains not one credible link to support the core allegation, regarding the $33 million. The Daily Beast the concluded that there is absolutely no proof for the $33 million claim:

No, George Soros Didn’t Give $33 Million to #BlackLivesMatter, by Ben Collins, Daily Beast, August 19, 2015.

Then, Breitbart dramatically scaled back the claim, to $650,000 — but again, provided zero demonstrable proof to support  it:

Hacked Soros Memo: $650,000 to Black Lives Matter, by Aaron Klein, Breitbart, August 16, 2016.

Conclusion

Those who care about the U.S. Constitution, civil society and reality-based civic discussions have good reason to be gravely concerned about what Soros and his cabal of radical billionaires are doing to America, sharing such incendiary falsehoods about him can only serve to:

  • Call into question the legitimacy of well-researched articles that describe things that Soros has actually said and done
  • Cast him into the position of a “victim”
  • Poison the ability of reasonable people to have a constructive discussion about Soros

(16) “ICE confirms that deadly CA fires were set by illegal alien arrested & released 5 times by sanctuary city cops, ignoring ICE detainer requests each time” (published by fake site in Kosovo, derived from source story at Breitbart)

Background

There is no shortage of legitimate reasons to be outraged by repeatedly-deported illegal aliens perpetrating horrific crimes in America, due to our lax border security, and “sanctuary city” policies:

Immigrant deported multiple times found not guilty in slaying of Kathryn Steinle

20-Time Deported Illegal Immigrant Convicted Of Sexual Assault, Sodomy Tells Victims’ Families He’ll See Them ‘In Hell’

Illegal Alien Deported 8 Times Killed Two Women

Mexican illegal immigrant ‘raped sleeping 9-year-old girl’

Twice-deported sexual predator re-enters country Tuesday, is arrested Wednesday after break-in

Mexican man charged with raping 13-year-old had 19 deportations, removals

This incident

On December 10, 2017, as the horrifying, week-old California wildfires were spreading, I spotted this “news” story on Facebook.  Note that the “friend” (now unfriended) who posted it, openly admitted, “This is probably not true,” but shared it anyway:

Clicking on that link led to this page, at something called “Prideof-America.org” (see link at lower left of screencap above), a domain that is registered to a user in Kosovo:

Here is the “story” page, which was written by the noted journalist “admin” — and which was shared on Facebook alone more than 18,000 times (see blue box at upper left):

ICE confirms that deadly CA fires were set by illegal alien arrested & released 5 times by sanctuary city cops, ignoring ICE detainer requests each time, posted by admin, December 1, 2017.  Excerpt:

Liberalism kills! The insane immigration policies of the sanctuary state of California have turned tragic once again.

The acting director of ICE has confirmed that not only is the individual responsible for setting many of the fires consuming California an illegal alien, he has been arrested by local Sonoma County police at least five times.

ICE submitted detainer requests to arrest and deport the individual, Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, all five times. All five times the detainer requests were ignored by local police, Gonzalez being released to set more fires and kill more people without so much as a phone call to ICE to honor its detainer requests.

The source cited for this incendiary allegation is a debunked Breitbart story — from October 19, 2017 — six weeks earlier:

Governor Moonbeam Jerry Brown should be sued for this by the families of those who died in the massive California wildfires and by those who lost all they own.

From Breitbart

WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Tom Homan confirmed on Thursday that a man arrested in connection with setting a fire in Sonoma County Wine Country is an illegal alien from Mexico who has been twice returned to his “home country.”

Homan also confirmed that ICE has issued detainer requests for Jesus Fabian Gonzalez five times now in the past year alone, including the one issued on October 16 in relation to his most recent arrest on suspicion of arson. All of the arrests were made “by Sonoma County on various felony and misdemeanor charges,” according to Homan.

Here is a screencap of the source story from Breitbart — which was shared on Facebook alone nearly 76,000 times (see blue box in upper right):

As we will soon see, the Breitbart story was debunked almost immediately after it was published, by both the Sonoma County Sheriff, and other fact-checkers.  What Breitbart got correct was that the acting director of the Immigration & Customs Enforcement bureau stated that Sonoma County had refused to cooperate with ICE regarding a repeatedly-deported illegal alien, who set fire to a specific property — a trash, in a park, to keep warm.  But Breitbart’s own story indicates that the ICE director specifically stated that he was not accused of having anything to do with the earlier wildfires occurring at that time:

ICE Director: Suspected Wine Country Arsonist Is Illegal Alien Mexican National, by Michelle Moons, Breitbart, October 19, 2017

WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Tom Homan confirmed on Thursday that a man arrested in connection with setting a fire in Sonoma County Wine Country is an illegal alien from Mexico who has been twice returned to his “home country.”

Homan also confirmed that ICE has issued detainer requests for Jesus Fabian Gonzalez five times now in the past year alone, including the one issued on October 16 in relation to his most recent arrest on suspicion of arson. All of the arrests were made “by Sonoma County on various felony and misdemeanor charges,” according to Homan. […]

There were several fires in the region, and it is not clear what role the fires Gonzales allegedly set played in the overall disaster.

Homan’s public statement highlights the lack of cooperation from Sonoma County officials and the devastating wildfires that have ravaged the region:

“Once again, a non-cooperative jurisdiction has left their community vulnerable to dangerous individuals and preventable crimes. ICE lodged a detainer against Jesus Gonzalez with Sonoma County jail officials on October 16, following his arrest on felony charges for maliciously setting fire to a property. This is especially troubling in light of the massive wildfires already devastating the region. Over the past year, ICE has lodged detainers against Mr. Gonzalez after four separate arrests by Sonoma County on various felony and misdemeanor charges. ICE was never notified of Mr. Gonzalez’ various releases. Additionally, Mr. Gonzales has been returned to his home country of Mexico on two separate occasions.

The next day, October 20, The Independent (UK) showed how Breitbart had deliberately conflated two completely unrelated events to construct a “news” story that amounted to fake news:

Breitbart fabricated fake story that immigrant started deadly Sonoma wildfires, says Sherriff; ‘There’s no indication he’s related to these fires at all,’ says Sonoma County Sheriff, by Maya Oppenheim, The Independent, October 20, 2017. Excerpt:

A Sheriff has claimed a Breitbart article claiming an illegal immigrant was arrested in connection with the deadly fires in northern California is “false and misleading”.

Sonoma County Sheriff Robert Giordano discussed the false claim published in the far-right publication, which is run by President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon, at a press conference on Tuesday.

“There is a story out there that he’s the arsonist in these fires,” Sheriff Giordano said at a press conference on Tuesday.  “That’s not the case. There’s no indication he’s related to these fires at all … I wanted to kill that speculation right now, so we didn’t have things running too far out of control.”

He said California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is carrying out an investigation to work out how the fires started and it was not clear whether it was even arson.

“They have not released a cause. We don’t know if these fires were arson or caused by another source,” he said in a statement.

At least 42 people have died since a cluster of deadly wildfires devastated northern California and ravaged the state’s celebrated wine country.

Tony Lopez, a reporter at CBS news, also weighed in on the furore, saying: “Rumour control: a man arrested for starting a small fire in Sonoma Co is NOT connected to the large deadly wildfires in Wine Country.”

Conclusion

As noted earlier, Americans have very good reasons to be concerned about the illegal aliens entering the U.S., and the coddling and protection of those among them who commit crimes, by “sanctuary cities.”

This concern, however, must be based on accurate, verifiable evidence.

This incident of fake news, however, and others peddled by right-wing propagandists, serve only to undermine every legitimate story of crimes committed by illegal aliens, and the need to effectively deal with this problem.  In this incident, shared nearly 100,000 times on Facebook just by “Prideof-America.org” and Breitbart (and who knows how many other times, by other sites), people in America and beyond were flooded with an incendiary allegation that was proven fake within the content of the source article itself.

Further, this incident gave some of the most notoriously irresponsible major “news” organizations the opportunity to attack Breitbart, legitimately, thus enabling them to position illegal aliens as “victims” of such smear campaigns.


(17) “WATCH: Muslim mobs armed with machetes and bats terrorize London’s largest Jewish community” (published by Pamela Geller)

Background

There are many legitimate reasons to be concerned about militant Islamism (Muslim supremacism) in England, and their hatred for, and attacks on Jews — and the UK government’s appeasement-based policies:

ISIS-linked jihadis call for attacks on Jewish targets in the West, singling out U.K., The Foreign Desk, February 27, 2017.

UK Muslims more anti-Semitic than general population, poll finds; A quarter of British Muslims think Jews ‘responsible for most wars’; 40% say they ‘control global affairs’, by JTA (via Times of Israel), April 13, 2016.

Extremists and returning jihadists ‘offered council house bribes to reintegrate,’ The Telegraph, October 29, 2017.

Survey reveals chasm between Muslim values and rest of UK, The Times, April 11 2016.

Being an ISIS martyr is better than success at school or college, Muslim hate preacher ‘told children’, Daily Mail, September 11, 2017.

UK: Welcome Mat for Jihadist, Gatestone Institute report, May 27, 2017.

Political correctness helped cover up child sexual exploitation in Rotherham, Legal Insurrection, August 27, 2014.

This incident

On July 30, 2017, I spotted the following “news” story on Facebook:

A reasonable person who clicks on that item would think that once they get to the source page, they will be able to watch a video featuring that still image. They will not — because as we’ll see, that image is apparently unrelated to this incident, which took place at night.

Clicking on that headline brought the reader to the source “story,” at PamelaGeller.com, which was published on July 24, 2017:

“WATCH: Muslim mobs armed with machetes and bats terrorize London’s largest Jewish community,” by Pamela Geller, PamelaGeller.com, July 24, 2017. Excerpt:

The UK banned me from entering the country because of my support for Israel and my opposition to jihad. But this horror is sanctioned and censored. The UK was once considered the most civilized nation in the world, the land of the Magna Carta; it is devolving into an oppressive, brutal Islamic state.

Muslim youth gangs moved into London’s largest Jewish community with knives, baseball bats, and machetes to beat and terrorize innocent Jews in their own neighborhood.

This member of the LGBT community reports what she saw:

https://youtu.be/NTsOL2FR-kY

Some things to note at this point:

(1) The video above contains nothing but one woman speaking into her phone camera.

(2) There is no image or video that correlates to the picture contained in Geller’s page, purportedly showing, “Muslim youth gangs moved into London’s largest Jewish community with knives, baseball bats, and machetes to beat and terrorize innocent Jews in their own neighborhood” — by daylight.

Instead, further down page, Geller embedded a short video of a massive police presence, which was indeed in Stamford Hill, a predominantly Jewish neighborhood of London, after an incident of vandalism and rioting — at night:

Another source Geller cited is the “European Union Times,” a site of dubious (or worse) credibility, which posted this headline on June 21, 2017, along with the same video:

London mass brawl: Muslims chase Jews with bats, knives and machetes, Riot Police called in, by European Union Times, June 21st, 2017.

Again, there is absolutely nothing in the story to substantiate that the perpetrators were Muslims.

Further, on the same day, June 21, 2017, an actual UK newspaper, The Sun, reported nothing about this being a Muslim attack, but rather, that it was a “rave” that ended with a clash between the youths who were participating in it, then spilled out over into the streets.  It also included brief video of the scene, at night, with a massive police presence:

Police lock down estate in Stamford Hill amid reports of ‘violence involving machetes and swords after illegal rave’; One man said he witnessed a car being attacked by a mob of up to 30 armed with bats and hammers, The Sun, June 21, 2017.  Excerpt:

Police locked down an estate in north London last night amid reports of violent disorder involving knives and swords.

Riot police and armed officers arrived on the scene on the Stamford Hill Estate and cordoned off a large area.

Holding shields and forming a line, officers were heard urging bystanders to leave the area.

The Met’s helicopter also hovered overhead.

Police said they were called to a street fight on Lynmouth Road and found a 19-year-old man with stab wounds.

There was also a large group of people and officers were pelted with bottles from a nearby block party.

It took almost an hour to clear the area.

A woman said she had reported an “illegal rave” on the estate near Lynmouth Road. […]

A Met Police spokesman said: “Officers attended and found a large group people at the scene, and there were reports of persons believed armed with knives. Extra officers were called to attend.

“It is believed the group had come from a nearby block party.”

Conclusion

As noted earlier, there are many legitimate reasons to be concerned about virulent anti-Semitism in England — not only by Muslims, but by the broader British population, more than one-fourth of whom harbor hatred of Jews. There is no question that with increased immigration by Isamists who believe they have a divine right, and obligation, to attack Jews, and local governments (and media’s) willingness to whitewash, and appease these incidents, the UK is effectively committing cultural suicide.

It is for this reason that these facts must be responsibly presented, and strategies developed with which to reverse these destructive trends.

Instead, Geller:

  • Published this “story” more than a month after the incident — yet gave zero indication that according to police, at the time, it was actually a “rave,” not an Islamist attack.
  • Inserted a completely unrelated picture into the story.
  • Constructed a headline that falsely claimed the reader can “WATCH Muslim mobs armed with machetes and bats terrorize London’s largest Jewish community.”  The video(s) she provided depict nothing of the sort.

The net effect of these acts and omissions is that Geller’s Facebook post, which was shared more than 2,000 times, and untold thousands more times beyond that, on other social media, email and elsewhere, was that she:

  • Gave Islamists and their apologists the justification to legitimately claim victim status, due to her willingness to publish such a “story”
  • Served up justification to call into question the legitimate stories of Islamist attacks on Jews in England and elsewhere
  • Gave credibility to those who claim that “right-wing Islamophobia” is behind many if not most such stories

(18) “Police Raid Standing Rock Camp, Destroy Tipis and Are Burning What Remains”

Background

Over the past several years, there has been a proliferation of fake, false, and grossly decontextualized “news” stories designed to incite widespread hatred of police officers in America.  In many cases, it is not only fringe sites and organizations that traffic in incitement-based allegations; rather, it is mainstream “news” entities that deliberately pour gasoline on the fire of already-smoldering public misconceptions — such as the malicious lie that Michael Brown allegedly was executed by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, MO, after pleading, “Hands up, don’t shoot!” — yet which CNN hosts were still perpetuating months after it had been completely debunked:

The net result of the incessant anti-police propaganda and incitement has not just been widespread hatred against certain police officers who have been charged, tried and convicted of wrongdoing, but all police officers across America.  And this, in turn, has led to more than a dozen police officers being ambushed and murdered, and countless others suffering injuries.

This incident

The following is adapted from a special report by The Guardian (UK):

On February 2, 2017, a leftist website entitled “Alternative Media Syndicate” published the following shock article:

“Police Raid Standing Rock Camp, Destroy Tipis and Are Burning What Remains”

The story, however, was fake news — and the photo is actually from a movie, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.”

As reported by The Guardian:

While stories of police violence at Standing Rock have become commonplace, the account that spread last week was particularly shocking. An article from AlternativeMediaSyndicate.com said officers had burned the camps of indigenous activists fighting the Dakota Access pipeline – and destroyed their tipis.

The piece, which included an image of multiple large tipis engulfed in flames, was shared more than 270,000 times on Facebook. But the photo was from a 2007 HBO film, and a key premise of the story was fake.

“It’s absolutely frustrating,” said Dallas Goldtooth, an indigenous leader at Standing Rock who warned his followers on Facebook that the article was false. “There is so much misinformation.”

Conclusion

As the Guardian noted, this fake story was shared more than 270,000 times, and served to:

  • Amplify the anti-police hatred and propaganda that are churned out by radical leftist propagandists — and as shown earlier, even certain mainstream “news” organizations
  • Further endanger all police officers, not because of anything they have done, but rather, because of the incessant fake news directed at others in their profession
Screencap of the Facebook post by “Alternative Media Syndicate,” which was shared more than 270,000 times.

(19) “U.S. Government Just Declared WAR On Native Americans, State Gives Cops the Green Light To Shoot DAPL Protesters On Sight” (published by fake site in Grand Cayman, shared by others)

Continuing from Case Study 18, adapted from an article by The Guardian (UK):

In early October, 2016, this “news story” began making the rounds on Facebook and other social media:

The source of this “story” is a website called “CounterCurrentNews.info” — which conjured this shock headline:

U.S. Government Just Declared WAR On Native Americans, State Gives Cops the Green Light To Shoot DAPL Protesters On Sight

The site published what it claimed was an open declaration by the governor of North Dakota to murder DACL protesters, on sight, effectively gunning them down as one would rabid animals.

Note that the “news story” concludes with a plea to readers to spread it — which they clearly did, because as indicated to the left, it was shared more than 160,000 times on Facebook alone:

“Please share this with the world let them know how they are treating us… we are not terrorist! We are defending the land and the water! Protecting out future!” Please share this, leave your comments, prayers, positive thoughts, whatever is good. Please help people become aware to what is happening. Help protect the land and water!

Further, a Google search using the headline copy, “U.S. Government Just Declared WAR On Native Americans, State Gives Cops the Green Light To Shoot DAPL Protesters On Sight,” returns more than 13,000 results — which only hints at how many points-of-origin this “news” story” began traveling through social media, and likely, email.

A casual perusal of other “news stories” at “Counter Current News” reveals that it is a hyper-leftist fake news and incitement website, which is probably why it is registered anonymously — off U.S. soil, in Grand Cayman:

Conclusion

Following up on the “Background” section in Case Study 18, this malicious, anti-police fake “news story” — and the tens of thousands of people who shared it, without examining whether it was true or not — served to:

  • Amplify the anti-police hatred and propaganda that are churned out by radical leftist propagandists — and as shown earlier, even certain mainstream “news” organizations
  • Further endanger all police officers, not because of anything they have done, but rather, because of the incessant fake news directed at others in their profession

(20) HuffPost perpetuated the lie that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted Congress’s invitation to address it, before President Obama had been notified

This case study was first published in a July 2016 special report by SaveTheWest:
“The Rhodes To HuffPost”: The Huffington Post’s use of lies, deception, bias and anti-Semitic incitement in order to help “sell” the Iran deal

At 7:50am on March 2, 2015, a few hours before Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, HuffPost published this splash headline story. Note that the headline copy put incendiary words into Netanyahu’s mouth, clearly implying that he had done something to insult President Obama:

02Mar BAD BIBI SPLASH - NO OFFENSE BARRYThe story page to which this incendiary headline led contained this passage (emphasis added):

HUFFPOLLSTER: Netanyahu Visit Polarizes Americans, by Mark Blumenthal, Ariel Edwards-Levy and Janie Velencia, The Huffington Post, March 2, 2015 7:50 am ET.

“Nearly half of American voters — 48 percent — say that congressional Republicans should not have invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress on Tuesday without first notifying President Barack Obama, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.”

This incendiary allegation originated in a story in the New York Times, that simply repeated an allegation by White House operatives that President Obama had not been notified in advance about Netanyahu’s acceptance of Speaker Boehner’s invitation to address Congress.

In reality, as HuffPost knew or should have known, the New York Times had corrected that false story more than a month earlier, on January 30, publishing this notation at the end of the article:

“An earlier version of this article misstated when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel accepted Speaker John A. Boehner’s invitation to address Congress. He accepted after the administration had been informed of the invitation, not before.”

Omri Ceren of the Israel Project was the first to have caught the correction, and began publicizing this fact the same day, January 30, after which it went viral among those who supported Netanyahu speaking to Congress:

01Feb - NYT ADMITS WH LIED - HP NothingEd Lasky at American Thinker publicized the NYT’s correction, and the fact that this was a lie that originated in the Obama administration, on January 31.

Further, according to a February 17 story by Bloomberg, a CNN-ORC survey revealed that nearly twice as many Americans said they wanted Netanyahu to speak to Congress, as those who didn’t (even though many assumed the White House false narrative was correct, about its not being informed in advance).

HuffPost has built one of the largest news rooms in America, with hundreds of journalists, researchers and editors.  Is it possible that HuffPost was really unaware of the reality surrounding Netanyahu’s speech? Or, did it continue perpetuating this lie in order to discredit Netanyahu, and protect Rhodes’s “war room”?

One critical hint, as shown in this screencap from May 28, 2016,  is that HuffPost never corrected its story, and as our records show, it never published a retraction on either its front page or World page.

The fact that others also perpetuated this lie (in this case, NBC News and the Wall St. Journal) is immaterial, because according to Arianna Huffington, what makes HuffPost different from, and better than other news organizations is that:

Arianna13“Too many reporters have forgotten that the highest calling of journalists is to ferret out the truth, consequences be damned.”

“There is an objective reality, and it is the media’s job to present it unequivocally.”

Arianna Huffington

This episode was but one of many that reveals the reality: that HuffPost is a cauldron of lies, incitement and bias.  See more at:

SaveTheWest’s debut documentary: “The Huffington Post’s Anti-Semitic Bias and Incitement During the Third Intifada”

STW’s new documentary: “HuffPost’s Dehumanization of Capt. Taylor Force”


(21) “Polish first lady passes over Trump’s handshake” (published by the Washington Post)

This case study is adapted from an article at Legal Insurrection.

From Legal Insurrection:

This is what Fake News looks like: Polish First Lady “passes over” Trump handshake, by William A. Jacobson, Legal Insurrection, July 6, 2017.

If Washington Post and other leading media will mislead as to a handshake, why should we trust their “anonymous” sources?

A misleading video clip of Donald Trump supposedly being passed over for a handshake by the First Lady of Poland is sweeping the internet. In fact, there was a handshake a couple of seconds later, but the clip is cut so tightly that it appears that this was a sign of disrespect.

If it were just another misleading internet meme, it would be bad enough. But it is being pushed by the Washington Post on Twitter and on its website, as well as by other major media.

Here is WaPo’s tweet:

Legal Insurrection shows additional videos to show how the Washington Post knew at the time that this was a severely edited clip, but ran with it anyway, to deliberately spread a false perception of what occurred. Continuing…

It’s completely misleading, but you have to watch far into the clip to realize it. Here’s the video, watch until the 23 second mark to see that just after the “passed over” handshake, the Polish First Lady shakes hands with Trump:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkwNvGbMiZc

Legal Insurrection then shows how USA Today, Newsweek and CNN also posted the same, fake story, and several “journalists” even laughed about having done so, on Twitter — before issuing public corrections.

In the end, it was Poland’s Prime Minister, Andrzej Duda, who explicitly, publicly called out this fake news — on Twitter:

Conclusion

As noted in Case Study 1, there are legitimate reasons to be critical of President Trump — and any other president — for things he’s actually done, or failed to do.  That is one of the hallmark rights of America’s free press.  But what happens when our supposed watchdogs are engaging in their own campaign of fake news, against a sitting U.S. president?

Ironically, since the 2016 election, the Washington Post changed its motto to, “Democracy Dies In Darkness,” presumably positioning it as the citizen’s source of light.  In reality, this incident was just one of dozens of recent betrayals of the basic principles of journalism by the Washington Post, including:

Washington Post journalist tweeted ‘fake news’ photos which showed an empty arena at his Florida rally — when it was actually packed

Washington Post reporter caught plotting liberal agenda with billionaire George Soros

The Washington Post’s fake news regarding Jerusalem, and the history of religion

Washington Post peddles Palestinian propaganda

Washington Post Israel Bureau Chief Justifies Paying Palestinian Terrorists

The Washington Post — under the fig leaf of “analysis” –rationalizes and justifies mob violence


(22) “There is no reproductive freedom without Net Neutrality” (published by NARAL, and shared by “social justice attorney” Sandra Fluke)

This case study is adapted from articles by Unbiased America and Twitchy.

On December 13, 2017, noted “social justice” attorney Sandra Fluke re-Tweeted the following article from NARAL, and added the preceding comment on her own:

Fluke’s “news” link led to this page at NARAL (NARAL Pro-Choice America):

Tell the FCC and Congress that net neutrality matters to reproductive freedom

Without a free and open internet, anti-choice extremists could pay to block access to accurate information about reproductive health or even phone data access to calling abortion clinics.

Imagine a world where a woman searches the internet but can find no information on how to access an abortion. Imagine trying to call your representative, but you can’t get through, because the phone company is being paid to limit the number of phone calls to Congress. Join us as we battle to save our internet.

Demand that Congress and the FCC stop their plans to move forward with killing net neutrality.

Without even going any further, the entire preposterous notion of this fake news post can be revealed by asking one question: Was the entire world of information about abortion, local providers, contraception, policy analyses, etc  available on the Internet before “Net Neutrality” was implemented, in 2015?

Yes.  All the vote to rescind “Net Neutrality” did, on December 14, 2017, was to bring us back to that point, in which Internet Service Providers provided all the access we enjoyed prior to this law being implemented.

From Unbiased America:

NET NEUTRALITY OUTRAGE IS A LESSON IN HOW EASY IT IS TO POLITICALLY MANIPULATE PEOPLE, by Kevin Ryan, Unbiased America, December 14, 2017.

During World War II, Japanese leaders told residents of the island of Okinawa that American soldiers would eat them and their babies if America captured the island. As a result, thousands of Okinawans fought to the death or took their own life rather than face capture.

Of course the claim was untrue, but such is the power of propaganda to manipulate the masses into doing your bidding, whether it’s defending an island to the death…

…or giving control of the internet to politicians and bureaucrats.

Watching people lose their minds on social media today after the FCC voted to repeal the so-called net neutrality regulations was a sad reminder that government propaganda remains the best way to control the populace. Like the bogus cannibal American soldiers, the net neutrality repeal is a fake boogeyman so wrapped up in hyperbole that its detractors honestly believe it will lead to the collapse of the internet if not society itself.

Yet one need only look back to 2014 to realize it’s a total falsehood. Before net neutrality took effect in 2015, the internet was in no way broken. It was a bastion of free information. ISPs weren’t engaging in the behavior that the new regulations were written to protect us from, prices were dropping, new applications and services were emerging daily.

And President Obama’s own FCC commisioners recommended against applying Title II regulation to ISPs, believing the 1934 regulations would be detrimental to the modern and rapidly evolving technology of the internet. But, in a saavy political move, the president publicly announced that he wanted the Title II regulations “in order to protect Americans from big internet bandwidth providers controlling internet content” via throttling or blocking. The notion that hated ISPs like Comcast might somehow censor or slow our internet experience so terrified many voters that they virtually begged the government to take over the internet.

And they are still so obsessed with that fear over a non-existent problem that the public has reacted to word of net neutrality’s repeal with truly unbelievable claims of the disasters it will cause.

♦ Feminist Sandra Fluke: Killing Net Neutrality would kill access to abortion information… There is no reproductive freedom without Net Neutrality.

♦ The New York Times: The Internet Is Dying. Repealing Net Neutrality Hastens That Death

♦ Mike Caufield, director, Washington State University Vancouver: Killing net neutrality will throw us back to the Dark Ages

♦ GLAAD: The repeal of Net Neutrality is an attack on the LGBTQ community

♦ Wired: Expect Fewer Great Startups if the FCC Kills Net Neutrality

♦ Rolling Stone: Repeal Could Kill the Careers of Indie Musicians

♦ The Verge: Ending net neutrality would contribute to inequality of education and opportunity and could threaten the basic foundation of American democracy.

And that’s just the media and other organizations. Read through your Facebook news feed today if you want more insane hyperbole from friends and family. And coming next week: Many of the same people begging the government to regulate the internet will be pleading with the government not to let them keep more of their own pay check, and saying tax cuts will threaten the basic foundation of American democracy.

Sigh.

Unbiased America provided its sources:

No, the end of ‘net neutrality’ isn’t cyber-maggeddon, by Julian Sanchez, NY Post, December 1, 2017.

Net Neutrality Supporters Should Actually Hate the Regulations They’re Endorsing; The Obama-era “Open Internet Order” discourages a free internet, by Andrea O’Sullivan, Reason.com, July 18, 2017.

Pro–Net Neutrality Graphic Makes Argument Against Net Neutrality; Do net neutrality advocates fear consumer choice?, by Ed Krayewski, Reason.com, November 22, 2017.

BLESS her heart: SJW Sandra Fluke gets REKT for claiming ‘killing’ #NetNeutrality will kill THIS, by Sam J., Twitchy, December 14, 2017.

More articles, that obliterate the lies that have been told about Net Neutrality, by both paid and unpaid activist groups, stretching back to 2014:

My take on net neutrality, by Kim Komando, Komando.com, December 15, 2017.

VIDEO: MSNBC Anchor Loses Net Neutrality Debate With Former FCC Commissioner, by Amber Athey, Daily Caller, December 14, 2017.

Gabriel: Net neutrality sounds nice, but we’d be better off without it, by Jon Gabriel, Arizona Republic, December 1, 2017.

The Biggest Net Neutrality Lie of All, by Larry Downes, Forbes, July 17, 2014.

Conclusion

The bulk of information we received from mainstream sources during the last year about Net Neutrality has been disjointed, filled with half-truths, and without necessary context.  Into this void, talented, influential propagandists constructed wave after wave of escalating, incitement-based fake “news” items, such as this “news” headline that HuffPost published, atop its front page on April 27, 2017, regarding FCC chairman Ajit Pai:

 

Barely two weeks later, in an editorial published on May 10, 2017, HuffPost turned up the heat, and explicitly advocating stalking Republicans with whom one disagrees, and their families, including even at their homes.  From the Daily Wire:

HuffPo Editor Threatens Members Of GOP, by Hank Berrien, May 12, 2017. Excerpt:

Michelangelo Signorile, the editor-at-large of HuffPost’s “Queer Voices” section, decided he would threaten members of the GOP. In an article titled “To Save America We Must Stop Being Polite And Immediately Start Raising Hell,” Signorile urged his audience to “turn up the heat on elected officials.”

What did he mean by “turn up the heat?” This:

They should be hounded by protestors everywhere, especially in public — in restaurants, in shopping centers, in their districts, and yes, on the public property outside their homes and apartments, in Washington and back in their home states. Paul Ryan, the House Speaker, should not be able to attend any function, eat in public, or enjoy dinner at home without hearing people expressing how his actions are harming their lives and their families’ lives in terrible ways.

The Daily Wire continued:

Signorile is only fanning the flames of an already-burning fire; [Congressman] Tom Garrett, a GOP member of the Freedom Caucus, revealed his wife was already getting death threats such as, “This is how we’re going to kill your wife.”

Then, on May 14,  2017four days after HuffPost’s incitement editorialan organized group of notorious, violent radical leftists began “demonstrating” in front of Pai’s home and neighbors:

Alt-Left Targets Ajit Pai; Members of violent protest groups organize events in FCC chairman’s neighborhood, by Elizabeth Harrington, Washington Free Beacon, May 15, 2017. Excerpts:

Members of the alt-left with a history of participating in violent protests are targeting the neighborhood of the Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai.

The organizers, connected to DisruptJ20 and Code Pink, said they are “taking the fight to Pai’s front door,” leaving leaflets on the doors in Pai’s neighborhood last weekend to protest changes to the Obama administration net neutrality policy.

On Sunday, the activists will again target Pai’s neighborhood, this time with a “vigil to save the Internet.”

“Join us this Sunday for a #SaveTheInternet #NetNeutrality vigil outside of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s house,” a Facebook event organized by “Protect Our Internet” reads. […]

The campaign is an attempt to intimidate and embarrass Pai for his plans to reverse the Obama administration’s net neutrality rules, which gave the government more regulatory power over internet service providers.

Kevin Zeese is a PopularResistance.org contributor, who several years ago organized a blockade of former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler’s house to demand net neutrality rules, which the Obama administration later adopted.

PopularResistance.org is a network of leftist activists in the D.C. area who have been involved in violent protests with the antifa, DisruptJ20, and Code Pink. […]

Members of the “well-organized” group were “armed with hammers and crowbars” at the inauguration protest. Storefront windows were smashed and a limousine, which was owned by a Muslim immigrant, was set on fire. Over 271 protesters were arrested and 6 police officers were injured.

DisruptJ20 activists were also revealed on an undercover video released by Project Veritas to be planning to attack the “DeploraBall” inauguration party with butyric acid, which led to the arrest of one of the group’s activists for conspiracy to commit assault.

Those are not the actions taken by people or organizations of good will, who are committed to honest, civil, fact-based public debate.  They were egged on by certain supposedly objective “news” organizations, such as HuffPost, which took a leading role in vilifying anyone who supported repealing Net Neutrality, as being opposed to “freedom” — when in fact the whole point of this action was to restore freedom to the Internet:


(23) “In his first 10 months, Trump told nearly six times as many falsehoods as Obama did during his entire presidency” (published by the New York Times)

Background

A claim this preposterous could only come from one of the leading apologists that was completely committed to acting as a PR agency for President Obama, than as the nonpartisan, objective “news” organization that the New York Times claims to be, and which consistently avoided publicizing his most egregious lies.

As demonstrated in Case Study 1, SaveTheWest is fully willing to call out President Trump when he says or publishes things that are demonstrably untrue — and we concede that many of the items in the Times’s compendium of Trump lies are accurate.  The problem, however, is that the Times is applying completely different standards to identifying and chronicling “lies.”

This incident

On December 14, 2017, this item began circulating through social media:

Clicking on that Tweet led to this “opinion” piece at the New York Times, which it claimed is based on objective evidence:

Trump’s Lies vs. Obama’s, by David Leonhardt, Ian Prasad Philbrick and Stuart A. Thompson, New York Times, December 14, 2017. Excerpt:

After we published a list of President Trump’s lies this summer, we heard a common response from his supporters. They said, in effect: Yes, but if you made a similar list for previous presidents, it would be just as bad.

We’ve set out to make that list. Here, you will find our attempt at a comprehensive catalog of the falsehoods that Barack Obama told while he was president. (We also discuss George W. Bush below, although the lack of real-time fact-checking during his presidency made a comprehensive list impossible.)

We applied the same conservative standard to Obama and Trump, counting only demonstrably and substantially false statements. The result: Trump is unlike any other modern president. He seems virtually indifferent to reality, often saying whatever helps him make the case he’s trying to make.

In his first 10 months in office, he has told 103 separate untruths, many of them repeatedly. Obama told 18 over his entire eight-year tenure. That’s an average of about two a year for Obama and about 124 a year for Trump.

The editorial is summed up in this infographic; the title of our case study originated in the caption the Times wrote (see top left):

“In his first 10 months, Trump told nearly six times as many falsehoods as Obama did during his entire presidency”

The reality

Those with a grasp of reality, who operate according to objective standards, and who was an informed news consumer from 2009-2017 recognizes the utter farce that the Times’s editorial is.

Several conservative publications tore its claims apart, and provided a plethora of Obama’s lies, that the Times chose to ignore.  The reason we classify this as fake news, instead of false news (see how we define these terms here), is that the Times was fully aware of the lies that Obama told throughout his presidency, but chose to present only a handful of them, instead of the entire, disturbing litany of them.

Here are a few articles that debunk the Times’s claim — including several written by those who, like Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire, were vehement “never-Trumpers”:

FAKE NEWS: New York Times Reports Trump Lied 500% More In 10 Months Than Obama Did In 8 Years, by Ben Shapiro, Daily Wire, December 14, 2017.

VIDEO: New York Times Editor Gets Called Out for Flimsy Fact-Checking of Trump and Obama…On MSNBC!, by Chris Reeves, NewsBusters.org, December 15, 2017.

Why Conservatives Distrust the Media; New York Times Under-Counts Obama’s Lies, by Andrea Ruth, RedState.com, December 14, 2017.

New York Times claims Obama only told 18 falsehoods during his whole presidency. Here are 18 he told in selling Obamacare in 2009 alone, by Philip Klein, Washington Examiner, December 15, 2017.

Obama Lies The NYTimes Chose Not To Call Out, by Robert Donachie, Daily Caller, December 14, 2017.

NY Times Reports Obama Only Told 18 Falsehoods During Entire Presidency, by Alex Griswold, Washington Free Beacon, December 14, 2017.


Another important Obama lie, as documented in an earlier report by SaveTheWest, regards the Iranian nuclear program:

In 2012, during the second presidential debate, President Obama promised that if re-elected, he would only accept a deal with Iran that requires the complete dismantling of its nuclear program:

Bob Schieffer (moderator): “As you know, there are reports that Iran and the United States a part of an international group, have agreed in principle to talks about Iran’s nuclear program. What is the deal, if there are such talks? What is the deal that you would accept, Mr. President?

Obama: “[O]ur goal is to get Iran to recognize it needs to give up its nuclear program and abide by the U.N. resolutions that have been in place. [T]he deal we’ll accept is they end their nuclear program. It’s very straightforward.”

Soon after Obama was re-elected, however, he reversed this policy, and sought only to limit — temporarily — Iran’s ability to build nuclear weapons, and the missiles with which to deliver them. And in the end, the Obama administration deceived and bullied the U.S. Senate into turning the rulebook for treaty ratification on its head, in order to ram through the “deal” — which was never even signed by Iran’s mullahs, who have been violating its terms ever since.


Ultimately, although “Trump lies” memes on social media did not originate after the Times’s editorial, they were given new life, and a plethora of new ones were created, based on the phony graphic that accompanied it:

Conclusion

To affirm: President Trump has uttered an inordinate amount of factually untrue statements. Any U.S. president who utters untruths (if not deliberate lies) should be called out by the news media.  It must, however, be done according to the same standard (see SaveTheWest’s proposed credo for honest journalists, here).

The above collection of articles is just a small sampling of the evidence that reveals the fundamental dishonesty and double-standards of the Times’s assertion.  They also indicate why most Americans do not trust our so-called “news” media:

  • Journalists, particularly TV journalists, are among the least-trusted occupations in America.
  • Nearly two-thirds of Americans, from across the political spectrum, believe the mainstream media publishes fake news.

(24) “Tax scam: GOP give themselves huge cut!” (published by Huffington Post)

On December 16, 2017, HuffPost published this “news” headline atop its front page:

Clicking on that shock headline brought the reader to this “story” page. Note the different between the headline on the front page, versus that on the “story” page — and how the body copy further validates the lie:

“Republicans Are Voting To Give A Huge Tax Cut To Many Members Of Congress”; But they insist they didn’t give that a thought,” by Arthur Delaney and Philip Lewis, Huffington Post, December 15, 2017. Excerpt:

Republicans say they want to reform the tax code for the greater good of corporate America, the broader economy and the middle class. Their tax legislation would also directly benefit a constituency usually omitted from GOP talking points: members of Congress themselves.

Since they pay taxes just like everyone else with six-figure salaries, lawmakers would benefit from the lower income tax rates in the bill, although some could end up worse off with the loss of certain deductions.

Some lawmakers would particularly benefit from proposed changes to the estate tax, which is a levy on the right of rich people to transfer their assets to heirs after death. The tax applies to a married couple’s estate if it’s worth more than $11 million and an individual’s estate worth more than $5.5 million. In a given year, only the richest 0.2 percent of estates meet that threshold.

But a lot of members of Congress are that rich. The median net worth of U.S. senators stood at about $3.1 million in 2015, according to personal financial disclosure data analyzed by the Center for Responsive Politics.


The Reality, Part 1: The headline of the story is untrue, because it is legally not possible

First, the GOP is not proposing to give themselves a tax cut, of any size.  Neither the GOP nor the DNC could give themselves a tax cut.  The whole notion of the headline is preposterous, but that was just the start of HuffPost’s decision to publish this multi-faceted fake news story — despite its repeated claims that it is a nonpartisan, objective newspaper.


The Reality, Part 2: The headline led to a story page that compounded  the lie

Clicking on that inflammatory headline led to this story page:

Once again, Republicans were not voting to “give a huge tax cut to many members of Congress,” or any members of Congress — and HuffPost knew it at the time.  It is not legally possible to isolate members of Congress to vote for them to be given a tax cut.


The Reality, Part 3: Contrary to HuffPost’s biased, inflammatory headline, Democrats are among the wealthiest in Congress, and represent the most wealthy districts in America

For years it has been well-known on Capitol Hill that Democrats in Congress and the Senate are, on whole, wealthier than Republicans:

More Democrats than Republicans Sit on 10 Richest Members of Congress List, by Stephanie Wang, Washington Free Beacon, January 15, 2014.

The source of the Free Beacon’s claims is the same source that HuffPost cited in its article — the Center for Responsive Politics.  More, showing that this trend continues to today:

7 of 10 Richest Members of Congress Are Democrats, by Terence P. Jeffrey, CNSNews.org, November 16, 2017.

Democrats are now the party of the rich — so why not tax the rich?, by Steven Moore, Washington Examiner, December 3, 2017.

Democrats: The Real Party Of The Rich, Investor’s Business Daily, April 2, 2014. Excerpt: “By almost every measure, in fact, it’s the Democrats, not the Republicans, who are the party of the rich. Start with Congress itself. Who are the wealthiest members? Well, there are 269 millionaires among Congress’ 535 members. And most of them are Democrats. And contrary to the hand-wringing on the left about the Supreme Court’s 5-4 McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission ruling Wednesday, Democrats far outspend Republicans on elections. It isn’t even close.”

Which Party Is the Party of the 1 Percent?, by Michael Barone, Capital Research Center, January 10, 2017.


The Reality, Part 4: The bottom half of America pays practically no income taxes; the top 20% pays 95%

Another facet of the reality that HuffPost chose to not include in its “story” is that according to the IRS and the Office of Management & Budget:

  • The top 1% of income earners pay 39.5% of taxes.
  • The top 5%of income earners pay 60% of taxes.
  • The top 20% of income earners pay 95% of taxes.
  • The top 50% of income earners pay 97.2% of taxes, while the bottom half pays 2.8%.

Given this data, if Congress proposes to lower tax burdens, who is it supposed to lower them on, if not the people who actually pay income taxes?  HuffPost completely ignores this question, so as to ensure that its incitement-based headline has the maximum effect.

Conclusion

How is Congress supposed to lower income taxes on anyone who does not pay income taxes?  The only people who can be targeted by income tax cuts are those who pay income taxes — which are the upper 50% of income earners, who pay 98% of all income taxes.

HuffPost chose to ignore this basic fact, and capitalize on the general public’s unawareness of it, in order construct this fake news story, and the incendiary, hyper-partisan, libelous headline for its front page.

Rather than being an isolated incident, or an “accident,” this was just one more incident of HuffPost’s long-term pattern of lying to the public (and its advertisers), and constructing fake news headlines, designed to incite hatred against its political enemies — which it then exacerbates by inciting and justifying violence against them.  SaveTheWest recently produced a short video that validates these allegations; see the documentation here:


(25) “Jeff Rothschild, VP of Facebook: ‘In order to finalize the New World Order we need a 3rd world war to exterminate 90% of the world’s population” (various sources)

On December 18, 2017 I came across this graphic on Facebook:

My first inclination was to ask the person who posted it, who until this point seemed to be a bright and informed in other regards, “Why would you post such obviously fake news?”

My second inclination was to apply one of the methods recommended in the main portion of this report — to Google the first dozen or so words of the claim, to see what comes up.

As it turns out, this poster was not alone in her bad decision — apparently, thousands of others have shared this fake news item, and innumerable variants of it, as well.

The reality

A Google search of the string “Jeff Rothschild. In order to finalize the New World Order we need a 3rd world war” on December 18, 2017 produced 211,000 returns — the first two of which claim it is a fake quote:

Then, clicking on the “Images” tab shows an innumerable number of graphic variations of this fake news meme — and also, closely related ones, that are explicitly anti-Semitic, alleging a Jewish conspiracy to first take control of, then destroy the world:

Conclusion

While it may seem obvious that this was a fake news meme, as indicated in the main section of this report, it is also worthwhile to ask oneself:

  • Why would someone conjure up this fake quote?
  • Who benefits from its spread?

While there is no way to answer the first question authoritatively, the second question is easier to answer: those who seek to spread anti-corporate and anti-Semitic lies, hate and incitement, benefit from this fake news meme, and every other one like it, especially when people blindly share it with others who may not have any idea of the reality, and are too lazy to investigate it for themselves.


(26) “Sharia law in Dearborn, Michigan – Muslim husband Beats Wife And Drags Her Behind Car” (published by “I Support Israel,” and various sources)

Background

Dearborn, MI, home of the largest mosque in North America, has become one of the most populous centers of Muslims in the U.S., especially for immigrants.  While most Muslims in Dearborn are peaceful and do not seek to challenge the U.S. Constitution as the prevailing law of America, a significant, vocal minority is intent on applying fundamentalist Islamist law, “shariah,” in Dearborn and beyond.   Numerous credible sources have documented this fact:

Dearborn man trained as bomb maker for Hezbollah arrested on terrorism charges, by Max White, WXYZ.com (ABC affiliate), June 8, 2017.

Influential radical Imam “a nuisance” in Dearborn’s Muslim community, by Aleem Maqbool, MichiganRadio.org (NPR affiliate), June 9, 2017.

Reports: Dearborn cleric radicalized London attacker, by Detroit News staff and wire reports, June 5, 2017.

In the first majority-Muslim U.S. city, residents tense about its future, by Sarah Pulliam Bailey, Washington Post, November 21, 2015.

Blood Money: Hezbollah’s revenue stream flows through the Americas, by Steven Emerson, The American Legion Magazine, March 2007.

And as Politico reported in March 2016, “Dearborn, Michigan, may be the closest thing America has to a Mollenbeek, the seething, Islamicized neighborhood of Brussels believed to have harbored the terrorists involved in both the metro and airport attacks this week and last fall’s slaughter in Paris.”

The above is just a small sampling of the legitimate reasons to be concerned about what is happening in Dearborn’s Muslim community.

This incident

On November 23, 2017, I came across this “news” story on Facebook:

[As you can see by the comment I posted, I’d seen this (former) “friend” post bombastic fake news from this site before, but presumed they were accidents. When I checked this one out, and realized it spread fairly widely, I decided to call a stop to our “friendship.”]

Clicking on that link took the reader to this page, at a free Blogspot website entitled “I Support Israel”:

Sharia law in Dearborn, Michigan – Muslim husband Beats Wife And Drags Her Behind Car

Dearborn, MI’ll have the first emerging No-Go Zone in the United States for Christians and Jews.  Sharia law has no place in the West, the Western world should ban the Sharia law.

Notice that the “story” has been shared more than 4,400 times on Facebook alone, and references an embedded video, which one would assume contains the footage of this alleged “Muslim” attack on his wife.

Just one tiny problem: The video below, produced by the local ABC News affiliate, said absolutely nothing about the perpetrator of this attack being a Muslim, or having anything to do with shariah:

The CBS News affiliate in Dearborn identified the perpetrator as Hassan Sayedbut did not identify him as a Muslim.  And there was absolutely no indication that this attack had anything to do with shariah.

Yet the way this fake news story was framed, with its shock headline, helped get the above ABC affiliate video viewed more than 830,000 times — and a casual perusal of viewer comments indicate the depth to which they just assumed that the headline at “I Support Israel” was true, and shared it.  Note that a Google search of the article’s headline, “Sharia law in Dearborn, Michigan – Muslim husband Beats Wife And Drags Her Behind Car,” returns more than 90,000 results, ranging from items on Pinterest, to right-wing blogs, to other fake news sites.

Conclusion

There are very good reasons to be concerned about Islamic radicalism on U.S. soil, and particularly in Dearborn, MI.  Further, radical Islamists’ savage treatment of women and girls is an especially heartbreaking problem, that is seeping into Western Europe and North America.

That said, posting inflammatory, fake news stories like this can only serve to:

  • Call into question the legitimacy of well-researched articles about the actual situation in Dearborn
  • Poison the ability of reasonable people from different viewpoints to have a constructive discussion about Muslims in America

(27) “Jodie Foster: Attacking the rich is not envy, it’s self-defense.” (published by Occupy Democrats, others)

On December 19, 2017, as the debate over President Trump’s tax reform proposal was reaching its climax, I spotted this meme on Facebook:

Although I didn’t (and don’t) know much about Jodie Foster, given that she herself is quite wealthy, I thought there’s a good chance that this was a fake meme.  Further, having seen repeated lies propagated by the group indicated at the lower left, “Occupy Democrats,” I decided to check it out.

The reality

This quote is apparently a well-known fake news meme, and “Occupy Democrats,” a notorious producer of fake and grossly misleading “news.”

According to Snopes, a left-leaning fact-checker:

An image featuring a picture of actress Jodie Foster alongside a quote ostensibly uttered by her about wealth disparity in the United States being the cause of poverty is frequently circulated on social media:

This quote did not originate with Jodie Foster, however. […]

So this denunciation of the rich started as a generic bit that was later attached to Jodie Foster’s name in order to lend it additional credence.

And here’s PolitiFact’s assessment of Occupy Democrats’ credibility, based on its analysis of previous “news” stories the site produced:

Occupy Democrats, founded in 2012, is an advocacy group created to counterbalance the Republican tea party, and to “give President Obama and other progressive Democrats a Congress that will work with them to grow the economy, create jobs, promote fairness and fight inequality, and get money out of politics!”

The PolitiFact scorecard [of stories produced Occupy Democrats]:

True (0)

Mostly True (8%)

Half True (25%)

Mostly False (0)

False (33%)

Pants on Fire (33%)

Conclusion

In a day and age in which lies and egregious misconceptions abound in regards to how wealth is created, what causes our economy to grow and contract, and who pays what in taxes, what Occupy Democrats (and others) did in propagating such an explicit incitement of hate — if not violence — against those with more money than them, is reprehensible.

For anyone on social media to assume that a major, wealthy Hollywood actress would say such a thing, then hit the “share” button without checking it out first, is just stupid, and can only serve to sow the hatred that is tearing America apart.


(28) “Your families’ taxes [are going to] go up because of this [tax] bill… you’re giving telecom companies and biggest banks in the country a really embarrassing amount of money” (claimed by Rachel Maddow)

Background

As noted in Case Study 24 on this page, the radical left in America had been issuing an escalating series of lies about the GOP tax bill, while vilifying and dehumanizing the Republicans who supported it.  It got so bad that even the left-of-center Washington Post was calling out the Democrats’ central talking points for what they are, rounding out other exposes that documented the pattern of inflammatory lies that were often repeated, verbatim, and without analysis, by mainstream “news” organs:

Senate Democrats falsely claim GOP tax plan will raise taxes for most working-class families, by Glenn Kessler, Washington Post “Fact Checker,” November 2, 2017. [FOUR PINOCCHIOS]

Does the Senate tax bill really offer a tax break for private jets, as key Democrats claim?, by Nicole Lewis , Washington Post “Fact Checker,” December 6, 2017.  [THREE PINOCCHIOS]

Democrats can’t stop lying about the GOP tax bill, by Pete Kasperowicz, Washington Examiner, December 20, 2017.

Here are the top three biggest lies about the GOP tax bill we need to debunk real quick, by Siraj Hashmi, Washington Examiner, December 20, 2017.

[Left-wing] Think tank retracts analysis saying GOP tax bill would raise taxes on 1 in 8 filers, by Joseph Lawler, Washington Examiner, November 6, 2017.

The Big 3 Tax Cut Lies That Democrats Keep Telling, by Investor’s Business Daily, August 28, 2017.

As the debate over the GOP tax reform proposal advanced, the Democrats’ lies escalated, and were rarely if ever challenged, let alone debunked, in the most influential news media, which played a major role in the public skepticism, if not disapproval, of the bill. (Note that when people discover the reality, as opposed to what they’ve been told, they often become very supportive.)

This incident

Leftist MSNBC political commentator Rachel Maddow took this pattern of lying to a new height on the evening of December 20, 2017, when she said:

“So when your families’ taxes go up because of this bill, you can take comfort in knowing that’s what you’re paying for, you’re giving telecom companies and biggest banks in the country a really embarrassing amount of money to have to explain away.”

The reality

The reality of Maddow’s claim is that she, and MSNBC, either knew or should have known it was a lie, fake news, before she ever uttered it.  As noted in the links above, they had good reason to know it was a lie, weeks earlier.

After the show, numerous sources exposed her lie for what it was:

Rachel Maddow Tells Her Audience Their Taxes Are Going Up — But There’s One Problem, by Julio Rosas, Independent Journal-Review, December 21, 2017.  Excerpt:

According to a new report by the [left-leaning] Tax Policy Center, it showed not only are 80 percent of taxpayers getting a tax cut, but only 5 percent are going to see a tax increase of more than $10.

Further, as noted by the [left-leaning] Tax Policy Center, only a small fraction of the lower 50% of American households pay either no income taxes, or actually get money back at the end of the year, to supplement their incomes:

Conclusion

Unlike independent bloggers, anonymous fake-news peddlers and other lesser-rans, Maddow is backed by a multi-billion dollar corporation, NBC, which defines itself, and sells advertising to major American companies, based at least in part on its claims that it is:

“A company uniquely positioned to inform, empower and inspire, we embrace the opportunity to create conversation and mobilize action to address some of the world’s most critical issues.”

Presumably, this means that it does so based on objective news, and reality-based opinions.  Yet in this instance, (and in dozens of others), it engaged in the deliberate, knowing dissemination of fake news.


(29) “Chelsae Clinton: I too moving the capitol of Israel.  Muslims have been around nearly two hundred years.  Jews and Israel started in 1969.” (published by fake site in Panama, shared by others)

On December 26, 2017 I spotted this on Facebook:

Even though this “Tweet” had the blue check mark to the right of “Chelsae Clinton,” supposedly indicating that this is a verified account, I suspected it was fake.  About ten seconds of research on Google was all it took to determine this is, indeed a fake Tweet, and as noted in the comments, I informed the person who posted it of this fact.

The reality

I Googled a very simple string: “Chelsea Clinton Tweet I too condemn Jerusalem.”  The very first results that the search produced clearly indicated this is a fake Tweet:

Chelsea Clinton’s Fake Tweet – Tweeterino

https://tweeterino.com/ChelseaClinton/status/201295

Chelsea Clinton‘s Fake Tweet. Your Chelsea Clinton Fake Tweet – I too condemn moving the capital of Israel. … Hint: Sharing in social networks will show a thumbnail image where the full tweet is visible. … If Trump actually moves our embassy to Jerusalem who will people in the cities get the help they so desperately need.

Chelsea Clinton’s Fake Tweet – Tweeterino

https://tweeterino.com/ChelseaClinton/status/202183

Chelsea Clinton on Tweeterino: If Trump actually moves our embassy to Jerusalem who will people in the cities get the help they so desperately need. Meal assistance, medical … Hint: Sharing in social networks will show a thumbnail image where the full tweet is visible. … I too condemn moving the capital of Israel.


Tweeterino – An entire site dedicated to enabling users to create fake Tweets, that appear to come from public figures

Both of the above links led to Tweeterino.com, which enables users to create fake Tweets that appear to come from celebrities and other noted public figures:

For example, clicking on Barack Obama takes the user to a data entry screen, to make up completely fictitious Tweets that will appear to have been written by him, and some examples of the Tweets that others have created, for this purpose:

Who is behind this malicious site?  It’s impossible to tell, because a Whois search reveals that it is registered anonymously — in Panama:

Name: WhoisGuard Protected
Organization: WhoisGuard, Inc.
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 0823-03411, Panama Panama PA
Phone: +507.8365503
Ext:
Fax: +51.17057182
Fax Ext:
Email: e9ba4f307e04499e9b315df8e4c79700.protect@whoisguard.com


(30) “Melania Trump Orders Removal of Near-200-Year-Old Tree From White House” (published by Newsweek)

“A half-truth is a whole lie.”

– Hebrew proverb

Background

The mainstream “news” media has been applying an egregious double-standard to covering First Lady Melania Trump, as opposed to how it covered First Lady Michelle Obama.  It relentlessly attacks Mrs. Trump, while at the same time ignoring the kind and generous things she does, and says — which is the exact opposite of how it treated the former First Lady (and President Obama).

Of particular note is the mainstream “news” media’s accusations that the Trump administration is waging a war on our environment, using hyperbolic headlines and imagery, such as this propaganda screed, published by HuffPost on Christmas Day 2017:

This incident

On December 26, 2017, Newsweek published and heavily promoted this “news” story:

Did Mrs. Trump “order” the removal of this elderly tree out of malice?  To spruce of the White House’s esthetics, at the cost of this grand old tree, which has been standing on that spot for almost as long as the White House has been in existence?  Is this part of the Trump administration’s war on nature?

No, no, and no — as Newsweek knew at the time it published this bombastic, misleading headline.  From its own “story”:

Melania Trump Orders Removal of Near-200-Year-Old Tree From White House, by Sydney Pereira, Newsweek, December 26, 2017.

The historic Jackson magnolia has been on the south facade of the White House since the 1800s—making it the oldest on the grounds. But Tuesday, Melania Trump reportedly made the decision to have it removed after tree specialists determined “the overall architecture and structure of the tree is greatly compromised,” the report stated, according to CNN.

CNN obtained documents from specialists at the United States National Arboretum, which determined the magnolia tree must be removed. The tree is “completely dependent on artificial support,” the document read. […]

A White House official told CNN that the first lady made the decision after reviewing and assessing professional information and historical documents. “Mrs. Trump personally reviewed the reports from the United States National Arboretum and spoke at length with her staff about exploring every option before making the decision to remove a portion of the magnolia tree,” Trump’s communications director, Stephanie Grisham, told CNN. “After reviewing the reports, she trusted that every effort had been made to preserve the historic tree and was concerned about the safety of visitors and members of the press, who are often standing right in front of the tree during Marine One lifts.”

The tree was about to fall, and experts recommended its removal. Mrs. Trump, according to Grisham, has requested to preserve the wood from the tree.

Knowing all that, do the facts contained in Newsweek’s article comport with the inflammatory headline it constructed to frame its “story”?  Of course not.

Had Newsweek decided to create an honest headline, it would have read something along the lines of:

“Heeding experts’ advice, Melania Trump approves removal of dying White House tree”

Or:

“Dying White House tree to be removed, per advice of National Arboretum specialists”

Instead, Newsweek decided to construct a headline that, at a glance, implies that Mrs. Trump maliciously ordered the destruction of an elderly White House tree, without any reason — legitimate or otherwise.

Conclusion

The above is just one more example of the fundamental dishonesty and double-standards that Newsweek has employed regarding the Obama vs. Trump administrations.  It also indicates one more reason why most Americans do not trust our so-called “news” media:

  • Journalists, particularly TV journalists, are among the least-trusted occupations in America.
  • Nearly two-thirds of Americans, from across the political spectrum, believe the mainstream media publishes fake news.

(31) “Jerusalem is a center of three world religions” (published by the Washington Post)

The following is a condensed version of an article at SaveTheWest, which we sent to the publisher of the Washington Post, but never heard back.

On January 13, 2017, a news article appeared on page A6 of the Washington Post, entitled, “Palestinians call for Muslims to pray that Trump doesn’t move U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.” The article contained a predictable rehashing of Palestinians’ grievances, and predictions of extremely negative consequences if President-Elect Trump fulfills his promise to move the embassy.

But contained within this routine material was this jaw-dropper:

Jerusalem is like no place else, its history sacred and bloody. The city has been seized, razed, lost and fought over for 3,000 years. It not only is a center of three world religions but remains a disputed city today, divided between the occupied Palestinian villages and refugee camps in the east and the Jewish neighborhoods in the west.

(Screencaps 1, 2)

Until this article, anyone who said that Islam has any substantive historical connection to Jerusalem would be dismissed as ignorant, the victim of a misinformation campaign, or a liar.

The person who wrote these sentences is not an uninformed bystander, however; he is the Post’s long-term Bureau Chief for Jerusalem, William Booth. His statements matter, because they are heard by, and influence many others.  Booth either knows or should know the history of the region.  Yet as the watchdog organization Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) has documented, Booth has a long history of producing false and grossly decontextualized “news” concerning Israel for the Post.


A brief history of Jerusalem

For clarity, here is a brief review of the history of Jerusalem, and which religions have an actual connection to it:

Islam’s Tenuous Connection to Jerusalem, by Eli Hertz, MythsAndFacts.com, April 21, 2014.

The Muslim Claim to Jerusalem, by Daniel Pipes, Middle East Quarterly,

Updated: The Battle Over Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, by Ricki Hollander, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), December 29, 2016.

In summary:

  • Ancient relief of the Romans expelling the Jews from Jerusalem, est. 70 AD.

    Jerusalem has been the center of Judaism for 3,000 years, which is 1,600 years before the advent of Islam.

  • What Mecca and Medina are to Islam, Jerusalem is to Jews.
  • Jews were forced out of Jerusalem numerous times by Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Muslims, and Christians. But Jews never forgot Jerusalem, and always returned when they were allowed to, or were able to.
  • Jerusalem is also important to Christians, as Jesus lived and prayed there at certain times in his life.
  • Jerusalem was never mentioned in the Koran. It was only important to Muslims when Jews or Christians lived there. As soon as the Jews or Christians were pushed out, Muslims soon lost interest in the city.
  • Eastern Jerusalem is not occupied by Jews, but was liberated by Jews from the Arab occupiers. The Jewish presence and control of Jerusalem benefits all citizens and residents there. After all, Israel is the only country in the Middle East that protects Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Many residents in Israel, Jews, Arabs and Christians, are grateful to the Israeli government, the IDF, and local Israeli police, for their dedication to protect Jerusalem, and all of its citizens and residents, to live and pray as they wish.


Jerusalem 2008, according to Sen. Obama: “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided”

It was presumably atop that body of irrefutable facts that then-Sen. Barack Obama, on June 4, 2008, while campaigning for the presidency, spoke before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and emphatically said that whatever the outcome of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the agreement:

“…must preserve Israel’s identity as a Jewish state with secure, recognized, defensible borders. And Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided.”

While it is true that Obama backtracked on this policy statement less than twenty-four hours later, he did not make this statement off-the-cuff. This speech, like all of his major policy speeches just before he won the Democratic Party’s nomination, was carefully crafted with his team of Middle East advisers, presumably based on the reality on the ground – and the history of the region.

The fact that he folded on his own policy less than a day later is only indicative of either a) his lack of resolve, or b) his desire to win the presidency overshadowing his adherence to the reality of the situation, and of the region’s history.


(32) “Iranians hold pro-government rallies… a witness said” (published by CNN)

  • CNN ignored the anti-government protests in Iran, the videos of which were going viral on conservative social media, and instead obsessed for three days with a box truck that was blocking their view of President Trump’s golf course
  • CNN then published a story that falsely claimed “Iranians” were holding “pro-government rallies,” which were clearly organized by the government, based on what it acknowledged was a single “eyewitness” — for which it got slammed by critics
  • Rather than being an isolated incident, this was part of CNN’s pattern of its ignoring and whitewashing of critical information about the Iranian regime and its terrorist appendages

Background

On December 28, 2017, mass protests erupted in Tehran and elsewhere in Iran, in which citizens railed against the ruling regime, its corruption, and its involvement in terrorism.  The stories and video of these protests were prominently featured by the BBC, CBS News, Newsweek and others:

Iran protesters chanting ‘DEATH to Rouhani’ CLASH with state security forces, by Mark Chandler, Express UK, December 28, 2017.

Iranian cities hit by anti-government protests, by BBC, December 29, 2017.

Protesters in Iran arrested in anti-government demonstrations, by CBS News, December 29, 2017.

Iran: Anti-Regime Protests Erupt Across the Country as Protesters Chant ‘Death to the Dictator’, by Callum Paton, Newsweek, December 29, 2017.

Protests erupt in central Tehran amid calls for mass demonstrations, by Saleh Hamid, Al Arabiya.net, December 30, 2017.

‘Death to the dictator!’ is new rallying cry in Iran as antigovernment protests spread to capital, by Shashank Bengali and Ramin Mostaghim, Los Angeles Times, December 30, 2017.


President Trump voiced support for the protesters, and denounced Iran’s tyrants

Protesters arrested in Iran on second day of demonstrations, by Amir Vahdat, USA Today (via AP), December 29, 2017, 7:29 p.m. ET. Excerpt:

Iranians protesting the country’s strained economy gathered in Tehran and another major city on Friday, for the second day of spontaneous, unsanctioned demonstrations placing pressure on President Hassan Rouhani’s government.

President Trump took to Twitter late Friday and voiced his support to the protests.

“Many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with regime’s corruption & its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad,” Trump said on Twitter, adding: “Iranian govt should respect their people’s rights, including right to express themselves. The world is watching!”

And from Fox News, this video report:

See this story in the Daily Mail (UK) for extensive on-the-ground imagery from the Tehran protests, including this video:


This incident

CNN effectively ignored the grassroots anti-government protests on December 28 and 29.  Instead, it gave top coverage to its ongoing obsession with trying to figure out why a box truck was obscuring its view of the Trump golf course in West Palm Beach, FL:

The Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro’s blog site, gave detailed coverage to CNN’s day-by-day obsession with this “story”:

CONSPIRACY SOLVED: CNN Figures Out Who Used Truck To Block Them From Stalking Trump At Golf Course, by Ryan Saavedra, Daily Wire, December 31, 2017.

Soon after, an unknown graphic artist created this satirical meme, which was shared widely on social media by numerou users:



Finally, on December 30, CNN published the following headline — which was, as CNN admits based on a single “witness” (and which observers noted were no more than a few hundred of the mullahs’ personal supporters and dependents, in contrast to the tens of thousands of Iranian citizens, protesting against the regime):


The aftermath

CNN was mercilessly slammed by critics in the U.S. and abroad for this fake news:

CNN, NYT called out over Iran protests coverage; Ted Cruz likened CNN to Soviet propaganda paper Pravada, by Al Arabiya English, December 31, 2017. Excerpt:

US news channel CNN came under strong criticism for its coverage of the Iran protests after posting an article on a pro-government rally while ignoring the anti-government protests all over the country.

Republican senator Ted Cruz attacked the news network on twitter for ignoring the uprising and likened them to the Soviet Union’s communist party newspaper, Pravda.

“Guys, when you’re being accused of being fake-news propaganda, maybe try not to write stories that read like Iranian Pravda…. (or the Onion!)” Cruz tweeted.

On Saturday, CNN posted an article titled “Iranians hold pro-government rallies”, describing the pro-government protests as peaceful.

CNN has since updated its article, now titled “Iran’s Government Warns Against ‘Illegal’ Gatherings After Protests.”

Commentators on social media also called out the news network on its coverage. Christina Sommers, Resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, tweeted: “Dear CNN : What is happening in Iran is not about Mr. Trump. It’s about Iranian liberty.”

In response to this criticism, CNN hurriedly manipulated the headline copy of its fake news article in ways that actually made its embarrassment even worse, by revising its headlines to claim “pro-government protests” were occurring, as documented by the watchdog site Twitchy:

CNN makes error, corrects it, and in the process invents the term ‘pro-government protest’ which makes zero sense, by Greg P., Twitchy, December 31, 2017.


Rather than being an isolated incident, this was part of CNN’s pattern of its ignoring and whitewashing of critical information about the Iranian regime and its terrorist appendages

CNN has come under withering criticism in recent years for its left-leaning, Obama-supporting bias, while insisting it is a completely nonpartisan news organization.  As evidence of this fact, and directly relating to the protests in Iran, consider:

On December 17, 2017, Politico published a 13,000-word report that alleges President Obama obstructed investigations into, and prosecutions of Hezbollah’s drug-running and money-laundering operations within the U.S., to support its global terrorism operations, which are also backed by Iran.

The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook; An ambitious U.S. task force targeting Hezbollah’s billion-dollar criminal enterprise ran headlong into the White House’s desire for a nuclear deal with Iran, by Josh Meyer, Politico, December 17, 2017.

The report included interviews with more than a dozen officials from the DEA, DOJ and DHS who had personal, direct knowledge of Project Cassandra, the code word for the joint operation to disrupt and ultimately take down Hezbollah’s North American operations.  RealClearPolitics summed up Politico’s report as follows:

In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation.

A Google search of the string “Project Cassandra Hezbollah” returns many examples of substantive, detailed analysis and criticism of the Obama administration’s acts in this regard, and they harmed U.S. national security.

Yet a December 31, 2017 search using the same string, “Project Cassandra Hezbollah,” at CNN.com — two weeks after the Politico report burst onto the Washington, DC news ecosystem — returned zero results:

Why would CNN, which claims to be “the most trusted name in news,” ignore both the spiraling anti-government protests in Iran, then publish such an obviously fake story about “pro-government rallies” (which it later revised to be termed “pro-government protests”), while completely ignoring the blockbuster allegations in Politico’s report on Project Cassandra?


(33) (Sinister-looking) Israeli transportation minister whispers to (sinister-looking) Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu: “’10 dead’ as protests continue in Iran” (published by Reuters)

Background

Over the course of many years, Reuters — one of the world’s most widely-cited wire services — has been exposed by watchdogs for its anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, pro-Islamist, pro-leftist bias. Examples include:

This incident

As documented in Case Study 32, from December 27-31, 2017, Iranian citizens were engaging in escalating protests against the theocratic regime, and its corruption, funding of terrorism, and more.

On the morning of January 1, 2018, various news sources reported that ten Iranian citizens had been killed by the government, for engaging in protests:

Iran says 10 people have been killed in nationwide protests, by Erin Cunningham, Washington Post, January 1, 2018.

The Latest: Iran state TV says 10 killed in protests, by the AP (via Sydney Morning Herald), January 1, 2018.

Here, however, is how ReutersTV presented the story, in a Tweet at this link, which led back to this video:

What do Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Yisrael Katz, his Minister of Transportation (whispering to him), have to do with ten Iranian citizens being killed by their government?  Absolutely nothing.

Furthermore, could Reuters have picked a photo that makes Netanyahu and Katz appear more sinister, conniving, or angry, to falsely associate them with Iran’s brutal oppression of these protesters?  It’s doubtful.

The link in that Tweet led back to this video at Reuters — which also begins with a thinly-veiled slam at Israel:

https://www.reuters.tv/v/5ib/2018/01/01/ten-dead-as-protests-continue-in-iran

The aftermath

Reuters was called out by watchdogs around the world for this latest fake news stunt, then removed the Tweet, and acknowledged it had done so:

The sleuths at the IsraellyCool blog documented not only the fake news that Reuters had published, but the fact that the Iranian rulers found it so helpful that they re-Tweeted it, with their own caption:

Genesis of Iran’s Latest Insane Conspiracy Theory, by Aussie Dave, IsraellyCool.com, January 1, 2018.  Excerpt:

Apparently, this visual also made its way to the Reuters Twitter account, before being deleted – but not before Iran’s Fars News noticed and decided to promote the conspiracy theory that Reuters revealed Israel’s hand behind the protests in Iran, but were forced to pull the photo after pressure from Israel.

Auto-translation:

“Admit to “Reuters” unwanted turbulence in Iran with the Zionist regime, ” #رویترز IRNA news agency account/on your news photos that are related to the recent riots in Iran was to take a picture of Netanyahu and the Minister of information. This media pressure after Israel was forced to apologize.”

Further, it should be noted that the allegation that Israel was somehow behind the uprising of Iranians against their repressive government originated not with Reuters, but with Iran’s tyrants — in 2011:

Iran blames Israel, US for supporting protests, Associated Press (via Jerusalem Post), February 15, 2011.

Iran made this allegation again, on December 30, 2017 — two days before Reuters published this “news” story and video, which mimicked the exact perception that Iran’s mullahs were working to spread throughout the world:

On 3rd day of anti-regime protests, Iran blames US, Israel for stirring unrest, Times of Israel (and AFP), December 30, 2017.

The Iranian regime did the same thing the next day, as reported by Haaretz:

Iranian Regime Mouthpiece Blames Israel for Wave of Anti-government Protests; Among the culprits, according to Iran’s state-sponsored Kayhan paper, are Netanyahu and the late Israeli President Shimon Peres, by Molly Bernstein, Haaretz, December 31, 2017.

In response to all this, Netanyahu released a short video on social media, in which he voiced support for the Iranian people, wished them well, and said he looks forward to the day when they and Israelis will be friends:

Netanyahu ridicules idea Israel behind Iran protests, chides Europe for silence; In video, PM praises ‘heroic’ demonstrators protesting against ‘cruel regime,’ wishes Iranian people success ‘in noble quest for freedom’, by Times of Israel, January 1, 2018.


Conclusion

Reuters’ acts cannot be considered “false news,” or attributed to a mistake, or something that “fell through the cracks.”  This was a deliberate, malicious effort to use the global influence and prestige of Reuters’ brand to spread an incendiary lie, and in doing so, enable and legitimize the world’s #1 terror regime, which has sworn to wipe Israel and the U.S. off the face of the Earth.  And rather than being a one-time occasion, the links contained at the beginning of this case study show that this incident was part of Reuters’ long-standing anti-Israel, pro-Islamist bias and propaganda.


(34) “Kroger is providing a free $100 coupon to everyone!” (shared by various people)

On January 2, 2018, I spotted this on Facebook:

It was shared by a trusted friend, a military veteran, but he is not fluent in fake news, and Internet scams.  A few moments of checking revealed this as both:

The first thing I did was to do a Google search of the headline, “Kroger is providing a free $100 gift card to everyone.”  Here’s what came up:

Kroger Free Coupon/Gift Card Scam; Kroger is not giving away free grocery coupons or gift cards to Facebook users who like and share a post, by David Mikkelson, Snopes, October 14, 2014.

How to tell if Kroger survey is real or a scam; Don’t Waste Your Money, by John Matarese, WCPO.com (Cincinnati, OH), June 27, 2017.

The most detailed expose’ was located at a website, “That’s Nonsense”:

Is Kroger giving away $100 coupons to those who click a Facebook link?, by Craig Charles, ThatsNonsense.com, on December 11, 2017. Excerpt:

Links are appearing on Facebook that claim Kroger is providing free $100 coupons to celebrate its 125th anniversary for anyone who clicks the link.

This is a standard survey scam using a non-existent prize to bait victim’s to spammy survey websites that are designed to harvest and subsequently sell your contact information to marketing companies.

Because I have multiple forms of pfishing and virus protection, I clicked on the Facebook link, and was taken to kroger-gifts.life, which displayed this survey:

Who owns kroger-gifts.life?  Not Kroger.  A simple Whois search at ICANN (the global registry of domains) reveals that it is owned by an individual in North Carolina…

kroger-gifts.life
Registrant Contact

Name: Michael James
Organization: N/A
Mailing Address: 4360 Nancy Street, Raleigh North Carolina 27612 US
Phone: +1.9078730923
Ext:
Fax:
Fax Ext:
Email: waqastariq4@outlook.com

… but is hosted by vultr.com — which is located in Singapore.


(35) “Muslim Doctor Refuses To Save A Christian Man’s Life On Flight From New York To Las Vegas” (published by fake site in Panama, shared by fake site in Kosovo, others)

Background

There have been significant, well-documented problems in recent years with a minority of Muslim physicians who emigrate to Western nations, including America:

Muslim medics refuse to roll up their sleeves in hygiene crackdown – because it’s against their religion, Daily Mail (UK), February 27, 2008.

Is there no alternative? Conscientious objection by medical students [Muslim physicians in England refuse to treat members of opposite sex, and others], by Robert F Card, Journal of Medical Ethics (UK), October 2011.

The last hours of a Christian sanitary worker in Pakistan [Muslim physician refused to treat], by BBC.com, June 11, 2017.

Judge: Doctor in alleged genital mutilation case [by Muslim physicians] a danger to public, by Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press, April 17, 2017.

Report: Girl’s genital mutilation [by Muslim physicians] injury worse than doctor claims, by Tresa Baldas, USA Today, April 27, 2017.

Muslim dentist ‘refused to treat female patients unless they wore Islamic dress’, by Tom Kelly, Daily Mail (UK), May 8, 2009.

That said, any reporting on such a hot-button issue must be done in a responsible manner.  Spreading lies about this issue only helps to give false legitimacy to those who claim that Muslim physicians on Western soil are suffering from unfair criticism, based on bogus allegations.


This incident

On January 5, 2018, I spotted this on Facebook, shared by a casual “friend,” who claims to work in an “intelligence”-related occupation:

Clicking on that item brings the reader to a site called “Patriot United Club” (http://patriotunited.club)


A few visible tip-offs that this is utterly fake news, right off the bat:

  • The article is written by the renowned journalist, “admin”
  • At the top of the site is a line that reads, “Click here – to select or create a menu.” Those who even casually work in website development or journalism know that this is a telltale sign that it is a brand new site, onto which the owner has not even inserted a header or top menu — which is why this line appears, to prompt them to finish the site

That said, here is the core allegation, and the links that allegedly support it:

Muslim Doctor Refuses To Save A Christian Man’s Life On Flight From New York To Las Vegas, by admin, Patriot United Club, January 3, 2018.

Dr. Jaleel Kohmeni raised his hand when the flight attendant on Delta flight 6978 from New York to Las Vegas asked if there was a doctor on board. He told the attendant that he wasn’t an American and that he preferred another doctor help if possible. Unfortunately, he was the man’s only hope.

As he approached, he could see that the man was barely managing to breathe and going in and out of consciousness. What the doctor did next may seem normal to people where he comes from, but here it was simply disgusting. He leaned over the man and asked him if he believed in God. “Yes,” the man answered, “Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.”

At that point, Kohmeni informed the flight attendant that he could only “give the man the comfort of knowing Allah will give him the chance to redeem himself in heaven,” but that he couldn’t help save him. The attendant reminded him that he was a doctor and that he was in the United States, not Syria.

The plane instead made an emergency landing in Pittsburgh, where the man was taken by ambulance to Mercy General, where he was pronounced dead. The doctor in the ER said “simple CPR” would have saved his life.

Dr. Khomeni was taken into custody by the Pennsylvania State Police for willfully endangering the life of his patient. Trooper Donald Deekmantold us that in their state, the doctor assumed the man as a patient when he raised his hand and subsequently left his seat. Not treating him is a felony. “It will be up to the DA to charge him with felony murder,” said Deekman, “we knew he’d broken the law so we arrested him.”

Wow.  We have specific names, and an airline and flight, with what appear to be supporting links.  And to what do those links lead?  See for yourself.

This could have been almost instantly ascertained as a fake news story just by doing very simple, quick Google searches:


The creator of this “news” story is anonymous, and the website is anonymously registered — in Panama

A search at ICAAN revealed this information about the owner of “http://patriotunited.club” revealed its owner is is anonymous.. and registered in Panama:

Original Query: patriotunited.club
Contact Information
Registrant Contact
Name: WhoisGuard Protected
Organization: WhoisGuard, Inc.
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 0823-03411, Panama Panama PA
Phone: +507.8365503
Ext:
Fax: +51.17057182
Fax Ext:
Email:e333fdefa792408fa5e839dc7582dee3.protect@whoisguard.com

What would an anonymous person or organization in Panama post fake news about an alleged Muslim crime, in America?

Good question.


So how far did this fake, incitement-based story travel?

According to “Patriot United Club’s” internal tracker, as of January 5, 2018 — two days after this fake story was posted — it had been viewed more than 7,400 times:

There is no indication of Facebook shares.  But a search of the headline at Google reveals several other fake “news” sites that published the same story, verbatim:

  • And a search of the headline at Facebook reveals dozens of other instances in which this fake story was adapted and shared, thousands of times, including by “American Magazine”:

…which a search at ICAAN reveals it is registered to a user in Kosovo:

Showing results for: conservative-news.net
Original Query: conservative-news.net
Contact Information
Registrant Contact
Name: Dritero Lokaj
Organization:
Mailing Address: Hilmi Rakovica, Prishtina Kosovo 10000 AL
Phone: +386.43921252
Ext:
Fax:
Fax Ext:
Email: driterolokaj@gmail.com


Conclusion

While freedom-loving people have good reason to be gravely concerned about Muslim physician immigrants to Western nations who refuse to comply with basic norms and practices of Western medicine, sharing such easily-discernible fake “news” stories, designed to incite hate against Muslims based on lies, can only serve to:

  • Call into question the legitimacy of well-researched articles about these issues
  • Perpetuate the false notion of rampant “Islamophobia” in America, and beyond
  • Poison the ability of reasonable people to have a constructive, reality-based discussion about these issues

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