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Conservatives Downplayed Fake News. Yesterday It Almost Had A Body Count.
https://mediamatters.org/research/2016/12/05/conservatives-downplayed-fake-news-yesterday-it-almost-had-body-count/214712An armed shooter opened fire at a Washington, D.C., pizzeria in order to “self-investigate” a false conspiracy about the restaurant pushed by fake news websites and spread by fringe right-wing media outlets. Yet right-wing media figures have dismissed and downplayed the impact of fake news, calling it “satire and parody that liberals don't understand,” saying it is “in the eye of the beholder,” and claiming that concerns about fake news are “silly” and “nonsense.”
Fake News Just Caused An Active Shooter Situation In D.C.
A Fabricated Story Claiming That A D.C. Pizzeria Is A Child-Trafficking Hub Led To A Man With Gun Opening Fire In The Restaurant. Fake news articles alleging that the Washington, D.C., restaurant Comet Ping Pong was a hub for child trafficking were widely shared on social media after the pizzeria was mentioned in hacked emails from Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, that were released by WikiLeaks. As The New York Times reported, “The articles appeared on Facebook and on websites such as The New Nationalist and The Vigilant Citizen, with one headline blaring: ‘Pizzagate: How 4Chan Uncovered the Sick World of Washington’s Occult Elite.’” As a result, the owner of the restaurant and the staff started receiving a torrent of threats via social media, including one message that said, “I will kill you personally.” On December 4, a man walked into the restaurant with an assault rifle and fired “one or more shots,” which did not hit anyone, because he was trying to “self-investigate” the conspiracy theory. (The New York Times, 11/21/16; Media Matters, 11/22/16; The Washington Post, 12/4/16)
Conspiracy Spread Due To "Alt-Right" And Fringe Right-Wing Media. The Daily Beast noted that the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory “began proliferating on websites like 4chan and Reddit, especially a Reddit forum frequented by Trump supporters and the alt-right,” which is a movement made up of white nationalists and misogynists, along with the right-wing media website Breitbart. The outlet also noted that the shooter on "his Facebook account ... likes both InfoWars and its host Alex Jones," who "published innumerable stories about Pizzagate." (The Daily Beast, 12/4/16; Media Matters, 8/25/16)
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