Lawrence O'Donnell, host of the weeknight MSNBC cable television program The Last Word and a stern critic of people who distribute “Fake News,” posted a tweet on Friday that contained what appeared to be a video of a female Muslim student beating up a “racist” male pupil at Washburn High School.
“Don't mess with Somali girls in Minnesota,” O'Donnell declared under the screen name of “Live From Mogadishu.” “The dude tried to knock her hijab (headgar) off, she gave him a hard lesson.”
Unfortunately for the liberal anchor, he posted the video without checking whether or not it was legitimate, and it wasn't long before James Walsh of the Star Tribune newspaper in nearby Minneapolis declared the footage a “hoax” and a “play fight” after he talked with Dirk Tedmon, a spokesman for the school district.
Walsh began his article by stating:
A video posted Friday afternoon to Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook purportedly showing a Muslim student at Washburn High School using her fists to exact revenge on a boy who tugged her hijab is fake, a Minneapolis schools spokesman said Saturday.
The video, titled “Welcome to Washburn,” has gone viral since it was posted to Facebook, with more than 6.5 million views, more than 161,000 shares and more than 29,000 comments -- many supporting the girl, who appears to be defending herself.
However, Tedmon said on Saturday that “school officials who talked to families of the students after viewing the video learned that it was a 'play fight' and intended as a joke. School safety and security staff confirmed the alleged incident never happened.”
“When asked if the students involved face discipline, Tedmon said such information is not [made] public,” Walsh continued.
“We want to make sure our families know the school community works continually to keep our buildings safe,” Tedmon said, adding that a learning environment that is “culturally sensitive to all our students is a priority.”
The irony of O'Donnell posting a video that he had not verified was not lost on Soopermexican, a correspondent for therightscoop.com, who stated that the MSNBC anchor “showed that he’s not above posting 'fake news' as long as it helps his leftist agenda.”
“Even if it had been real, it would have been irresponsible of O’Donnell to spread it without a link showing it’s true,” the conservative poster noted. “It’s that much more absurd that he would spread it without any proof of the explanation when it’s false.”
“Guess what, idiot,” he continued. “That’s EXACTLY how 'fake news' gets spread. This is happening on the right, too, as scumbag alt-right people spread videos of violence and lie that they’re about Muslim immigrants when they’re not.”
“But lying is wrong no matter what agenda it serves,” he added.
The incident also caught the attention of Laura Loomer, a reporter for the Geller Report Website, who stated:
MSNBC has demonstrated countless times that it doesn’t care about the truth, pushing fake news that only serves the purpose of advancing MSNBC’s left-wing agenda.
MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell, who has accused others of spreading “fake news,” tweeted out a fake video of a Muslim girl beating up a boy who tried to pull her burqa off. Investigators deemed the video fake.
Even though O'Donnell returned to host the Monday and Tuesday nights' editions of The Last Word, he has yet to comment on his Friday tweet and the many strong reactions to it. If he does respond, you can be sure NewsBusters will report on what he says about the matter.
