Why the media loves fake news (when it serves their agenda)

In the aftermath of the mass shooting that reportedly took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018, the mainstream media seemed extra eager to peg the alleged shooter as somehow being associated with the “alt-right.” And it almost seemed like this wish came true when online tipsters suggested to several major news outlets that Nikolas de Jesus Cruz was a member of a “white nationalist” militia group, until this claim was eventually exposed as fake news.

It all started when the left-wing Anti-Defamation League (ADL) ran with a story about how Cruz was allegedly a member of the Tallahassee-based “white supremacist” Republic of Florida militia group. The group’s leader, Jordan Jereb, had supposedly confirmed to the ADL that Cruz was, indeed, a member, but that it had not told Cruz to shoot up the school or commit any other acts of violence for which he was later charged.

“A spokesperson for the white supremacist group Republic of Florida (ROF) told the Anti-Defamation League on Thursday, February 15, that Nikolas Cruz [….] was associated with his group,” the ADL had initially reported.

ABC News, the Associated Press, and many other media outlets immediately ran with the story, believing that they had finally struck the goldmine of all goldmines: a white supremacist shooter who would finally be the patsy the left needed to bring about sweeping gun reform. They even attached the story to photos of a masked individual, which they claimed was Cruz – and which, like the story itself, was later proven to also be fake news.

It was the left’s dream come true, until it suddenly wasn’t. The local Tallahassee Democrat newspaper quietly reported that local authorities had dug into the claims about Cruz being associated with white nationalists a little bit more deeply than the ADL and the national news outlets had, only to discover that the whole thing was completely made up.

The ADL quickly issued an excuse, claiming that it had merely “shared information from our experts on extremism and claims from white supremacist (sic) that we believed could be helpful to both law enforcement and the public due to the fluid and evolving nature of the events.” But the truth of the matter is that the ADL simply couldn’t be bothered to verify the facts in this particular case, seeing as how the narrative represents everything the ADL exists to exploit.

The Anti-Defamation League may as well be called the Anti-White League

As we’ve previously reported, the Anti-Defamation League may as well be named the Anti-White League. The group loves to find new ways to stifle free speech, and has repeatedly played a role in trying to censor content online that exposes the left-wing agenda.

The ADL has further gone after the so-called “alt-right,” as well as pro-Trump groups, while remaining silent about all of the left-wing violence that’s occurred over the past several years from groups like Antifa. The ADL was also silent when the group “Red Guards Austin” suggested fomenting violence to bring about “change” in the form of a new American communist state.

Curiously enough, very little was said about the mainstream media’s perpetuation of fake news with regards to the Parkland shooting after it was exposed. Politico ran a story on it that, instead of condemning the media for not vetting the facts blamed “white nationalists” for “fooling” the media – again deflecting responsibility.

And isn’t that exactly what we’ve come to expect from these fake media empires? They’re all about going after fake news whenever it contradicts their own agendas. But when it suits them, fake news suddenly becomes the first thing that gets published, even if it’s completely baseless as was the case with claiming that Cruz was a white nationalist militia member.

See MediaFactWatch.com for more coverage of legacy media propaganda and fake news.

Sources for this article include:

PJMedia.com

NaturalNews.com

Politico.com