Multiple media outlets reported yesterday that the 19-year-old man who killed 17 people at a Florida high school this week was connected to a white nationalist organization in the region after a representative from the group told multiple outlets that the shooter was a member.
After the shooting, posts began circulating on the digital cesspool that is 4Chan’s “politically incorrect” forum board that claimed the man convicted of committing the mass murder in Parkland, Florida, had ties with the white nationalist group Republic of Florida. When the nonprofit Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called the Republic of Florida to confirm that the posts were accurate, a group representative named Jacob Jereb told ADL that the posts were true and that the shooter was “brought up” by another member. Jereb would go on to confirm the same claim to many other outlets, including the Associated Press and The Daily Beast.
Hours later, as white nationalist leaders such as neo-Nazi writer Andrew Anglin attempted to run damage control for their movement, Jereb pulled back his statements, claiming that he had not slept in two days and asking why people blamed him for reports in the “lying Jew media.” Later that day, local authorities told reporters they were unaware of ties between the shooter and the white nationalist group.
Jordan Jereb, the ADL’s source on the Florida shooter’s ties to white supremacist groups, is now backtracking on Gab, claiming that he lied, or was underslept and made a mistake.
Local law enforcement are now saying there are “no known ties” between Cruz and Jereb. pic.twitter.com/wvU4wN2B1z
— Jack Smith IV (@JackSmithIV) February 15, 2018
Despite the fact that Jereb seems to openly admit he lied to reporters, right-wing media who have been eager to discredit journalists latched on, thirsty for a chance to lambaste the press.
Pro-Trump sycophant and “Pizzagate” hoaxer Jack Posobiec called the accurately reported statements from Jereb one of ADL’s “outright hoaxes”:
Time for @JGreenblattADL to resign.
His tenure has marred a great organization by injecting partisan politics, mismanagement, and now peddling outright hoaxes
— Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) February 16, 2018
The Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft misleadingly claimed that ADL “used a larper on 4Chan to push the white supremacist conspiracy,” omitting the fact that ADL called Jereb to confirm the post before publishing. Hoft also seems unaware that his own White House correspondent frequentlybotches reporting by leaning on 4Chan as a lone source.
Mike Cernovich claimed that Jereb lying to reporters was further proof that the “alt-right is all feds, and people paid by the left”:
An alt-right leader told the ADL that the shooter was part of his white supremacist group,
because that’s totally what a sincere person would do.
As I’ve told people repeatedly, the alt-right is all feds, and people paid by the left.
— Mike Cernovich ?? (@Cernovich) February 15, 2018
Former Infowars editor turned independent conspiracy theorist Joe Biggs spread a post in a which a user claimed he was part of the group that launched the hoax. Biggs called the story “fake news”:
Kids on 4chan produced fake news story that ADL ran with and many others. pic.twitter.com/jwA980uI1i
— Joe Biggs (@Rambobiggs) February 15, 2018
Infowars editor-at-large Paul Joseph Watson said that alt-right and “alt-left” media “crafted a fake news narrative that fulfilled both their objectives”:
So the Alt-Right and the Alt-Left media crafted a fake news narrative that fulfilled both their objectives using made up 4chan posts less than 24 after a bloody massacre that killed 17 people. OK.
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) February 16, 2018
The situation is reminiscent of Watson’s bizarre claim to have exposed mainstream media as a fraud after a publication printed his lies about eating the pages out of books.
Crackpot anti-Islam “reporter” Laura Loomer claimed that the ADL and “left wing media” perpetuated the story “so they could create a fake narrative that the shooter was right wing”:
The ADL and left wing media lied and perpetuated a false report that the #FloridaShooter was tied to white nationalists so they could create a fake narrative that the shooter was right wing.
Police confirm the shooter has NO TIES to white nationalism.https://t.co/nDAtDmLOdI
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) February 16, 2018
Ryan Saavedra at The Daily Wire declared the Associated Press to be “left-leaning” and claimed that it had abandoned “all journalistic integrity” by reporting Jereb’s statement. From his article:
The left-leaning Associated Press helped fuel an unsubstantiated narrative on Thursday when it quickly spread a poorly-sourced claim from the left-leaning Anti Defamation League (ADL) which claimed that the Florida gunman was a member of a white supremacist militia group in Florida.
Abandoning all journalistic integrity, the Associated Press took the statement from the leader of the Republic of Florida Militia, Jordan Jereb, that gunman Nikolas Cruz was a part of his organization as a fact.
[…]
Make no mistake, the Associated Press has left their false tweet up for hours for one reason — to inflict maximum political damage on President Donald Trump. The media are trying to present every white person who commits an evil act as some sort of white supremacist, which they then try to tie to Trump.
Notice how anytime an Islamic terrorist shouts “Allahu Akbar” the Associated Press will downplay it by falsely claiming the terrorist shouted, “God is great.” The Associated Press also makes up completely fake terms, for example, calling illegal aliens, “undocumented citizens.”
Fox News host Laura Ingraham declared the story “#FakeNews”:
The white nationalist connection to shooter was #FakeNews https://t.co/irPsFVVOrH
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) February 15, 2018
