Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Congratulations to our presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden!
Anatomy of a smear: How far-right websites spread a fake story about Pete Buttigieg
Source: CNN
Anatomy of a smear: How far-right websites spread a fake story about Pete Buttigieg
By Sara Murray and Brian Stelter, CNN
Updated 2055 GMT (0455 HKT) May 5, 2019
(CNN) — This is a story about how political operatives tried to take down a presidential candidate, and ended up just humiliating themselves.
It's also a story about how a smear was spread by right-wing websites -- and was cleaned up by newsrooms that took some time to check the facts.
On April 29 someone shared a post titled "Pete Buttigieg Sexually Assaulted Me" on Medium, a site that lets anyone upload stories, essays and any other bit of text. It was attributed to a college student named Hunter Kelly.
Within hours, the fake allegation against the South Bend, Indiana mayor and Democratic presidential candidate would begin to crumble, and the real story -- the story of the smear campaign -- would emerge.
But by then, the Medium post already had 12,000 Facebook interactions. It ricocheted around the right-wing internet, thanks to sites like Big League Politics, InfoWars, NewsWars and The Gateway Pundit, potentially reaching millions of readers, according to a media analysis from Ben Decker, CEO of the digital investigations firm Memetica.
According to Kelly, the scheme started when Jacob Wohl, a far-right internet personality, messaged Kelly on Instagram. "Do you want to be part of a political operation?" the message said, according to a copy reviewed by CNN.
-snip-
By Sara Murray and Brian Stelter, CNN
Updated 2055 GMT (0455 HKT) May 5, 2019
(CNN) — This is a story about how political operatives tried to take down a presidential candidate, and ended up just humiliating themselves.
It's also a story about how a smear was spread by right-wing websites -- and was cleaned up by newsrooms that took some time to check the facts.
On April 29 someone shared a post titled "Pete Buttigieg Sexually Assaulted Me" on Medium, a site that lets anyone upload stories, essays and any other bit of text. It was attributed to a college student named Hunter Kelly.
Within hours, the fake allegation against the South Bend, Indiana mayor and Democratic presidential candidate would begin to crumble, and the real story -- the story of the smear campaign -- would emerge.
But by then, the Medium post already had 12,000 Facebook interactions. It ricocheted around the right-wing internet, thanks to sites like Big League Politics, InfoWars, NewsWars and The Gateway Pundit, potentially reaching millions of readers, according to a media analysis from Ben Decker, CEO of the digital investigations firm Memetica.
According to Kelly, the scheme started when Jacob Wohl, a far-right internet personality, messaged Kelly on Instagram. "Do you want to be part of a political operation?" the message said, according to a copy reviewed by CNN.
-snip-
Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/05/media/anatomy-smear-pete-buttigieg-fake-story/index.html
If I were to vote in a presidentialprimary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
If I were to vote in a presidentialprimary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Absolutely nothing is below these smear merchants - and the frightening thing is that there are people out there who swallow these ridiculous stories whole... 
If I were to vote in a presidentialprimary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
How many read it, passed it on still believe it?
If I were to vote in a presidentialprimary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
