Remember Ahmed the Clock Boy? He was the high school student arrested and suspended last year when he brought a disassembled clock to school in Texas because it was suspected to be a bomb. Young Ahmed Mohamed was hailed in much of the mainstream media at the time as a genius because he supposedly made a digital clock. Well, that turned out to be completely untrue. Far from being a budding Einstein, Ahmed merely removed a clock from its plastic casing and then placed it into a pencil case. After loudly drawing attention to his "invention," he was sent to the principal's office because of zero tolerance policy for possible weapons. After much media hype about Ahmed, he and his family moved to Qatar from which they have returned to pursue a lawsuit.
Unfortunately, now that the Clock Boy is back in the news, the MSM is again repeating the myth about his "homemade" clock. Should any of you still doubt as to how his clock was built, watch the video of Bill Maher below which reveals just how "homemade" it really was.
Even though the idea that Ahmed made (or invented) a clock has been widely discredited, that hasn't stopped the MSM from repeating the falsehood now that he is back in the news. The first example of repeating the clock myth comes from Tobia Salinger of the New York Daily News:
The father of the Texas Muslim teen arrested after bringing his homemade clock to school last year filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Monday.
The suit on behalf of 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed accuses the Irving Independent School District of “a clear pattern of discrimination based upon race as well as discrimination based upon religion.” The lawsuit also names Ahmed’s former high school principal and the city of Irving as defendants following his September 2015 arrest and three-day suspension.
The Daily News was hardly alone in reciting the widespread but debunked myth. We also have this from The Atlantic:
In the 11 months that have passed since Ahmed Mohamed was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school that teachers thought looked like a bomb, the 14-year-old Muslim boy from Texas has received national media attention, death threats, and a scholarship that took him to Qatar. Now, his family is suing the school district and city for violating his civil rights.
Of course, NBC News also joined in with repeating the falsehood:
The young tinkerer from Texas who was arrested last year for bringing a homemade alarm clock to school — and was later invited to the White House and Google's world headquarters — has filed a federal lawsuit against his former hometown, accusing it of violating his civil rights as part of a wider pattern of discrimination against African-American students.
It would be redundant to continue posting the plethora of media reports about the supposed "homemade clock" so I will conclude with this erroneous New York Times report:
The family of Ahmed Mohamed, the Muslim teenager who was handcuffed and suspended from his suburban Dallas high school last year after his homemade digital clock was mistaken for a bomb, sued school officials on Monday, saying they had violated his civil rights.
All these MSM outlets must think their readers or viewers have short memories. Unfortunately for them, many in the public are fully aware of this clock hoax as you can see in the reader comments section of The Atlantic:
Family of scam artists. Kid did not build or invent anything, he took the guts of a clock, put them in a case, took it to school, and set the alarm to go off during class. He was not whisked off to a black site, he was questioned, arrested, and released. For this he
I remember when this happened, folks on the Internet found the exact clock that he used and showed how he was clearly trolling.
It was likely a set-up because there was no science fair, no science projects due, and he didn't "invent" anything ... he took apart a clock for no reason and brought the parts to school. He wanted his teachers to notice the sound. And he was uncooperative when confronted by school officials, which is what prompted what some call the "overreaction."
Exit question: Will Glenn Kessler dare to give this "homemade" myth a Pinocchio rating especially since his own Washington Post also repeated the falsehood?
