PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2016-08-08 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Loretta Lynch: 'Confederate Flag Tattoos Must All Be Removed IMMEDIATELY' (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • On 4 August 2016 the notoriously unreliable (and often barely coherent) web site Conservative Daily Post published a clickbait article under a headline asserting that Attorney General Loretta Lynch had demanded all Confederate flag tattoos be removed (exactly what the tattoos were to be removed from was not explained): That article was picked up from one posted by the likewise notoriously unreliable Conservative Tribune (DOJ Issues Shocking Orders on Confederate Flag Tattoos), which in turn cited an article from the likewise notoriously unreliable WND. The headlines were enough to get Facebook users riled up and sharing, but the content of the underlying articles did not suggest that Attorney General Lynch had issued any orders regarding Confederate flag tattoos: These articles referenced a 29 July 2016 report about the arrests and arraignments of two men charged with a hate crime over the beating of a black man, which noted that one of the suspects bore a Confederate flag tattoo: So yes, a Confederate flag tattoo, in conjunction with many other factors, was cited as evidence of racial animus in reference to a suspect charged with assaulting a man because he was black. But nothing about the case declared that a Confederate flag tattoo on its own demonstrated the wearer bore racial animus, and no possible contortion of logic led to the conclusion Loretta Lynch had demanded all extant Confederate tattoos be removed. The assertion was prima facie preposterous, given that the procedure to remove tattoos is risky, expensive, and painful, and the Attorney General has no authority to issue or enforce such an order against the general public. The claim that Loretta Lynch demanded all Confederate flag tattoos be removed wasn't the first excessively misleading or outright false bit of clickbait fronted by Conservative Daily Post. During tensions between the community and police in July 2016, the outlet fabricated a story about an illegal immigrant employed at McDonald's telling police officers she didn't serve pigs, and more recently was duped by a fake news story about President Obama's moving his family to Canada. (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url