The Huffington Post keeps chipping away at its less than favorable credibility.
Just a few days ago, they claimed to have been in contact with a source that said he was the “best friend” of an 18 year old black man who was shot by police in a St. Louis suburb – drawing some to compare the recent police shooting to that of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri (reports show this shooting wasn’t similar to Brown’s.) News outlets, including the Huffington Post, rushed to cover the story – trying to “out-news” each other.
I can't believe my best friend just died in front of me #AntonioMartin
— Jesús Christo (@DesJuanTheThug) December 24, 2014
So The Huffington Post, thinking they had a “juicy” source, ran with the story. The only catch was this “source” turned out to be a fraud, not a friend. Oh, and the source only contacted the Huffington Post via Twitter (that may have been a clue). The “source” went by DesJuanTheThug on Twitter. From The Huffington Post (which has since been taken down citing a “CORRECTION”):
“A man calling himself Jesus Christo on Twitter, told The Huffington Post that he and Martin were stopped by an officer who said they fit the descriptions of recent robbery suspects. Christo, 18, declined to speak over the phone, but spoke through direct messages on Twitter.
The officer attempted to search Martin, who refused, Christo said.
‘The officer then stepped back and drew his weapon and pointed at Antonio and told us to lay on the ground,” Christo said. ‘I layed (sic) down but Antonio Refused (sic).’
More from Christo:
“The officer then began to step back from us with his gun still aimed at us. He told Antonio to lay down once again and when Antonio didn’t lay down the officer opened fire. And when I tried to get up to help my friend he screamed at me to stay down with his weapons still drawn.”
However, two hours later, DesJuanTheThug tweeted a different message:
Tell The Huffington Post to do a better job of finding credible sources.
— Jesús Christo (@DesJuanTheThug) December 24, 2014
Some news outlets noticed the fraud while others actually ran the false quotes (Sky News and International Business Times).
The false tweet was met with outrage by some, asking for DesJuanTheThug’s true identity to be revealed and to face the consequences for his actions.
Whether it was “sensational” marketing or a sick and twisted stunt, DesJuanTheThug seemed to use the outrage for social media gain by including links to his SoundCloud and Snapchat information.
For their part, The Huffington Post added this correction to its story:
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story included an interview with a man claiming to have been at the scene of the shooting and friends with the deceased. As police have released statements saying the second person involved in the incident has fled the scene, the source is now suggesting he was never there.
A few days ago I gave a little advice to The Huffington Post on their lame and biased abortion article and getting both sides of a story. Well, now here’s another one – VERIFY YOUR SOURCES.
