Best-selling author Stephen King expressed contrition for his promotion of a story with a blatantly misleading headline about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, apologizing to a CNN fact-checker who debunked the claim that students and professors were not required to register their political views with the state.
With the focus of the leftist resistance shifting to DeSantis who has emerged as a serious threat to their political agenda, leftists are throwing everything at the Sunshine State Republican in the hope that something will stick regardless of whether it is true or not.
The headline, which was for a 2021 article published by the left-leaning website Salon and had been on Twitter for over a year, never catching the attention of those whose job is policing the platform for misinformation, stated that “DeSantis signs bill requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with state.” It has since been updated after it was resurfaced to attack DeSantis with many promoting it as real, including sitting Florida agriculture commissioner Nikki Fried.
“The state of our state is incredibly fascist,” wrote the former weed lobbyist who is one of the candidates vying to unseat DeSantis in November in a since-deleted tweet of the Salon article.
(Image: Screengrab/Mediaite)
The horror mogul, a prolific tweeter and left-wing activist was among those who also swallowed the bait.
DeSantis signs bill requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with state.
I. Can't. Even.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) July 6, 2022
The viral recycling of the Salon headline caught the eye of CNN reporter and fact-checker Daniel Dale who set the record straight.
“The 2021 law does require public colleges and universities in Florida to administer annual surveys on the subject of ‘intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity.’ But contrary to the inaccurate initial Salon headline, the law does not require anybody to register their political views. Students and faculty members can decide whether to participate in the surveys, which are anonymous,” Dale wrote on the network’s website.
No, Ron DeSantis isn’t forcing people to register their political views with the state. Fact check on a false claim that went from a now-amended Salon headline to Democratic activists to author Stephen King: https://t.co/glndx2gBvP
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 8, 2022
Dale called out King by name for “sharing the false claim” which has since been corrected by Salon.
The inaccurate Salon headline from last year went viral again in the past couple days, with some Democratic commentators and other prominent people, even including author Stephen King, sharing the false claim.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 7, 2022
On Friday, Dale shared the response that he got from the humbled Maine-based schlockmeister: “Stephen King just sent a comment: ‘I regret having posted the headline without being more confident the story was correct. Salon is usually more reliable. Twitter is a constant learning experience, and I will try to do better.’”
Stephen King just sent a comment: “I regret having posted the headline without being more confident the story was correct. Salon is usually more reliable. Twitter is a constant learning experience, and I will try to do better.”
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 8, 2022
While privately apologizing to Dale, King still hasn’t done likewise with his 6.7 million Twitter followers.
Dale also reported that Salon has since rethought the headline:’Salon executive editor Andrew O’Hehir said in a Thursday email that while another Salon editor had defended the initial headline back in 2021, the publication recently took another look and concluded that the headline ‘conveyed a misleading impression of what the Florida law actually said, and did not live up to our editorial standards.'”
The headline has been updated to “DeSantis signs bill requiring survey of Florida students, professors on their political views,” Dale reported.
Also guilty of spreading the bogus headline was USA Today’s Josh Meyer who was slammed by DeSantis spox Christina Pushaw after he lamely tried to walk it back.
You are a "disinformation reporter" for USA Today. It's supposedly your job to scrutinize sources and identify disinformation, even when it's spread by left-wing media (as it usually is, BTW). But you blasted this out without fact-checking because it fits your BIASES.
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) July 6, 2022
There couldn’t be a more perfect example of how quickly that misinformation, disinformation, fake news, and outright propaganda are able to spread thanks to agenda-driven leftist influencers with hair-trigger Twitter fingers.
Get the latest BPR news delivered free to your inbox daily. SIGN UP HERE
DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW
Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!
Chris Donaldson is an ordinary American who is concerned about rampant corruption as well as the ongoing attacks on our way of life by those who have contempt for our hard-earned freedoms. A Navy veteran, he has been a frequent contributor to conservative websites and resides in Florida.
- Gutfeld carves up ‘pumpkin head’ James Carville for trashing Trump voters - September 28, 2023
- Mystery swirls as Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs bizarrely steps down for ONE DAY - September 28, 2023
- Bad news for Fetterman as Senate agrees to restore formal dress code - September 28, 2023
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.
