Right-wing fake news is nearly a daily occurrence now, but a viral story this week was so blatant, so easily traceable, that it's a useful example. It was impossible watching its wave build, transform, and travel across the net without picturing chilling scenes from this season's TV series Homeland (a must watch).
In the show, a screaming radio host and right-wing conspiracy theorist named Brett O'Keefe is a despicable mixture of Alex Jones of InfoWars, James O'Keefe of deliberately twisted video fame, and Chris LaCivita from the swift-boating monstrosity. O'Keefe gets support from a rogue CIA element to open a massive fake news and sock puppet operation designed to destroy the presumably Democratic president-elect.
Homeland’s right-wing radio outrage machine Brett O'Keefe, modeled in part on Alex Jones of InfoWars
This week’s sadly nonfictional story began mildly enough with a tweet from a West Palm Beach TV reporter about the dinner program at a March 24 Republican "Lincoln Day" event:
Turns out it was actually much worse. There was this monstrous banner:
Chelsea Clinton saw the dinner program tweet, was as yucked out as the rest of us, and responded:
Next day at Glenn Beck's The Blaze, reporter Chris Enloe was apparently unable to find anything of substance transpiring in the world so posts this:
Chelsea Clinton triggered by Abe Lincoln in ‘MAGA’ hat — gets trolled with hilarious responses
But apparently that was too much for Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. She took to Twitter Saturday to show her disbelief that the event’s program did, in fact, feature Lincoln in a “MAGA” hat.
Twitter proceeded to troll Clinton with hilarious comments:
But hey, at least Enloe correctly described why Chelsea was in disbelief, giving himself plausible deniability. But by including that second tweet, he deliberately left the door open for a flood of comments by the less intelligent, who misunderstand and thought she was wondering if Lincoln in fact wore a MAGA ballcap:
- And this is EXACTLY why I asked how she ever got the job running the Clinton foundation straight out of college? She got a 600K job running it and this is all the brains she has…to ask if Lincoln with a MAGA hat was photo shopped…? Noooooo Chelsea….he actually wore it, and bought it online…….stupid is as stupid does…. Chelsea for congress
- Airhead!!
Seeing just how -- well, I hate to say it, but what other word for it is there but... stupid? – are their readers, Tom Blumer, contributing editor for Newsbusters, saw an opportunity. Blumer has to be of at least standard intelligence, and therefore absolutely knew he was publishing a lie:
Chelsea Clinton Hopes MAGA Hat on Pic of Lincoln Is Photoshopped
I'd suggest that if you really have to ask, as Chelsea Clinton did, if a "Make America Great Again" hat seen on a rendering of Abe Lincoln on the cover of a Republican Party dinner program has been "photoshopped," you deserve every bit of the ridicule coming your way… To her credit, Mrs. Clinton (or Ms., or Miss, based on reader input) hasn't deleted her tweet — yet. Though she doesn't seem to understand photo editing, she at least grasps the idea that the websites of Twitter curators like Twitchy will have her tweet as long as they exist.
Now imagine if either of former President George W. Bush's daughters, who are also in their mid-30s, had posted something this dumb on Twitter. Does anyone believe that the establishment press, or especially the left-leaning cadre of late-night comedians, would be able to resist engaging in intense mockery? The heavy bets here should be placed on both groups pretending not to know anything about Chelsea Clinton's latest Twitter calamity, even though the press has gone out of its way to fawn over her supposedly aggressive and effective tweeting to this point (spare me), even though she's especially fair game for ridicule because of her rumored political ambitions.
Keep this episode in mind the next time some op-ed writer like Ann Friedman at the Los Angeles Times pathetically laments how "Just like her mother, Chelsea Clinton never gets a break."
Max McGuire, Advocacy Director at Conservative Daily and associate partner of a communications consulting company, is also presumably of standard intelligence. So with straight cynicism for never overestimating his readers, published this deliberate fake news:
Chelsea Clinton Unsure If Abe Lincoln Ever Wore a Trump Hat
Did Abe Lincoln support Donald Trump for President?
This is the question of our time and it was posed by none other than Chelsea Clinton. Forget about the limits of the space-time continuum and forget about the fact that 81 years separate Lincoln’s death and Trump’s birth.
First of all, the picture of Abraham Lincoln is from the five dollar bill. Now, it is obvious that Chelsea Clinton probably hasn’t handled small change in a while. But one would think… one would hope… that the daughter of a President wouldn’t be so dense as to think that this was real. I mean, come on. It’s a red hat super-imposed on a black and white etching of a long-dead President.
Is she worried that the five dollar bill has been redesigned to include a MAGA hat? Or is she nervous that Old Abe hopped in Doc Brown’s DeLorean and was actually photographed wearing a Trump hat?
There are just so many levels of stupid to Chelsea Clinton’s tweet…
But seriously, this is the woman that Democrats are grooming to become the next Senator for the State of New York. And here she is, seeming genuinely confused about whether a black and white etching of Abraham Lincoln, made famous by the $5 bill, was photoshopped to include a red Make America Great Again hat.
And the flood began. Possibly millions of Americans were being “informed” that Chelsea Clinton was stunningly imbecilic, a blonde so dumb she could never seriously be considered for a political career.
Chelsea responded:
But that didn't stop Eren Moreno of Truthfeed, who followed with this:
Chelsea Clinton Questions if This Photo of Abe Lincoln Wearing a MAGA Hat is REAL
And it certainly didn’t stop Rush Limbaugh, never shy about repeating a blatant lie and then expanding on it:
Meaning, it’s likely that Chelsea Clinton literally actually believed that Abraham Lincoln had worn a Make America Great cap and had been photographed wearing it back in 1863! She was serious, folks. She was scared to death that Lincoln actually wore the hat.
Needless to say, the comments sections on all these sites are filled with the most misogynistic crap you can imagine, focusing on her being a dumb blonde, her appearance, and comparing her with other “stupid” Democratic women.
Within a day the obviously fake news was happily embraced by conservative "mainstream" media (I'm choking on the fact Trump has elevated these fringe sites to the mainstream now).
Breitbart displayed its particular eloquence, showing why our president is such a fan:
Chelsea Clinton Ridiculed on Twitter for Confusion over Abe Lincoln ‘MAGA’ Image
Chelsea Clinton became the subject of ridicule across Twitter over the weekend as she asked whether a photograph of Abraham Lincoln wearing a Make America Great Again hat was photoshopped.
Dumber than her mother. Unbelievable.
What a moron...
The now august Fox News republished the NewsBuster story with this headline:
Chelsea Clinton Hopes MAGA Hat on Pic of Lincoln Is Photoshopped
The Sean Hannity Show:
HILARIOUS: Chelsea Clinton Wonders If Lincoln-MAGA Hat Image Is Photoshopped
Chelsea Clinton's strange reaction to an image of President Abraham Lincoln sporting a MAGA hat is drawing ridicule today.
Yes Chelsea, it's photoshopped. America's 16th president never traded in his stovepipe hat for a MAGA cap.
I'm no expert on how to track social media volume, but Sean Hannity's page shows about 20,000 Facebook shares so far. So much for Facebook trying to control fake news.
And thus the wave traveled across the World Wide Web.
Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit is approaching 10,000 shares with this:
DUMB AS A BRICK: Chelsea Clinton Wonders if Lincoln in a #MAGA Hat is Photoshopped
Mental genius Chelsea Clinton made a complete a$$ of herself once again this past weekend. Someone really needs to keep her away from the computers without supervision. …What a dunce…. What an idiot!
USSA News, "The Tea Party Front Page":
Chelsea Clinton unsure if pic of Lincoln in #MAGA hat photoshopped, gets mocked on Twitter
Is this what the Democrats really want to run for office some time in the future? On Sunday, Twitchy reported that a picture of former President Abraham Lincoln wearing a Make America Great Again cap actually prompted Chelsea Clinton to ask if it was photoshopped. The question, naturally, sparked a great deal of mockery on Twitter.
American Lookout:
BIGGEST MORON EVER: Chelsea Clinton Wonders if Lincoln in a MAGA Hat is Photoshopped
Many have worried about who will take the coveted spots that Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters hold as the biggest morons in Washington. To those who worry, worry no more, Chelsea Clinton is emerging as the person who will one day take their spot.
I guarantee these editors are not this stupid. Nor can this be chalked up to the blinders of bias. This is blatant, deliberate spreading of a lie to the most gullible Americans.
Which puts every name I named squarely on the list of known fake news generators in this country, deliberately weaponizing falsehoods to manipulate public opinion and devolve America.