Fact Check: Distortions and Fake News in Virginia Shooting

Alex Jones knows exactly whom he wants to blame for the Wednesday shooting on a Virginia baseball field: “the left” and its calls to violence. In a five-minute video produced by his conspiracy-laden website, InfoWars, Mr. Jones runs through a list of offenders on “terroristic social media,” distorting and cherry-picking comments, to make a wildly misleading case.

His video is among the most flagrant examples of an emerging trend of partisans repurposing old statements from lawmakers — or simply fabricating quotes — to place blame for the shooting. Here’s an assessment.

Mr. Jones accused the left of “publicly embracing homicide as a political solution.”

The video was posted to Mr. Jones’s Facebook page and YouTube channel, and viewed tens of thousands of times.

It is structured like a news report, ticking off the facts of the shooting on Wednesday morning. It correctly lays out details of the attack, identifies the shooter as James T. Hodgkinson, and highlights his social media activity in support of Senator Bernie Sanders’s anger toward Republican policies.

But it veers far from the truth with this sweeping, conspiratorial video presentation:

-more-

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/factcheck/fact-check-distortions-and-fake-news-in-virginia-shooting/ar-BBCJLOp?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=edgsp