ABC, AP and others ran with false information on shooter’s ties to extremist groups.
By Shawn Musgrave | 16 February 2017
POLITICO — Following misrepresentations by a white nationalist leader and coordinated efforts by internet trolls, numerous researchers and media outlets spread a seemingly false claim that the man charged with killing more than a dozen people at a Florida high school belonged to an extremist group.
Law enforcement agencies say they have no evidence so far to support this claim, and the rumor appears to have been perpetrated by white nationalist trolls themselves.
On Thursday afternoon, the Anti-Defamation League reported that a white supremacist group claimed ties with Nikolas Cruz, who confessed to the shooting spree that killed at least 17 people, including many high-school students, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
“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 reported. The ADL quoted a man named Jordan Jereb, who runs the small group, which is based in Tallahassee.
“Jereb added that ROF had not ordered or wanted Cruz to do anything like the school shooting,” the ADL wrote in a blog post that was quickly picked up by ABC News and The Associated Press, and later percolated through dozens of other media outlets. Even The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, picked up the claim. […]
Hmmm
I remain curious about the fact that the media in general and the ADL in particular failed to mention that the guy is JEWISH. I believe the ADL wasn’t swayed by anybody other than the Jewish community and they attempted to preempt the post shooting narrative to ensure it was days before the fact he was Jewish and conducted the attack on a Christian holiday, thus making the killer potentially a religiously motivated terrorist….