Perfectly played by a member of the partisan mainstream media!
The Associated Press ran with the story disseminated by white nationalist Jordan Jereb claiming that Nikolas Cruz, the Florida school shooter, was a member of his group Republic of Florida.
Within about an hour of publication, it became clear that AP and other so-called news outlets had been lied to. But, instead of publishing an immediate retraction, AP waited until the following day, publishing a one-sentence tweet that is no retraction at all.
The wire services, moreover, elected to post the tweet during the black hole of weekly news, Friday night, when readership is at its lowest.
White nationalist appears to have lied to the AP, other news outlets when he claimed that Florida school-shooting suspect was a member of his group. https://t.co/E09NtwL5qF
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 17, 2018
Longer AP: We didn’t vet Jordan Jereb’s claim by checking a membership roster. It “appears” he lied to us. Sure, the fact that the shooter is Hispanic makes it a ridiculous notion that he is a white supremacist or white anything. We waited over a day to publish this pure nonsense because we really, really wanted to connect the wild-eyed, maniacal killer to Trump and conservatives. Have a nice weekend.
