Screenshot June 13, 2020

Fake news stinks up Twitter like feces on a San Francisco sidewalk.

We all profess to hate it, yet many people frequently step in it without realizing it. Too many people don't take 90 seconds to research something that sounds too good, or too ridiculous, to be true.

Worse, however, is that some people deliberately post it. It's almost always sensationalistic, guaranteed clickbait. To stay with the metaphor, they purposely poop on the sidewalk and hope you walk right into it.

Gateway Pundit is a popular website and has nearly 269,000 followers on Twitter. A lot of people trust Gateway Pundit. And that's sad.

Today we have this outrageous example, in which Gateway Pundit claims that "bikers for Trump and other groups" are "planning to retake [the] Seattle Occupation Zone on July 4th." Gateway Pundit's publisher, Jim Hoft, is referring to the "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone." It is based on flimsy information.

Initial Reports: Bikers for Trump and Other Groups Planning to Retake Seattle Occupation Zone on July 4th https://t.co/VBDZluHnLR via @gatewaypundit

— Jim Hoft (@gatewaypundit) June 13, 2020

Screenshot June 12, 2020

Hoft's tweet today plays on some fake news that I called out yesterday (left). Like Hoft's untrue post today, the one I flagged as fake yesterday was based on a false rumor that the Hells Angels "with the BikersForTrump are on their way to Seattle to get Antifas [sic] asses."

The tweet was widely retweeted and featured a photo of what a lot of people assumed to be those bikers en route to Seattle. But there's a problem.

The photo, seen at left here, is from an event that took place in the UK last year (which I previously, incorrectly said was in Russia; I do correct myself when I'm wrong).

I found the photo at the Hells Angels Moscow website, on which they have other photos of the "Hells Angels Motorcycle Club Euro Run 2019." How did I find that? By right-clicking on the photo seen here and selecting "Search Google for image." It took me less than 90 seconds to realize that the tweet about "Seattle bound Hells Angels" was false.

Screenshot June 13, 2020

Jim Hoft should have done this, too. I don't know; maybe he did. Maybe he just loves the clicks more than the truth. But his tweet links to a post on his Gateway Pundit website that has the provocative headline, "Initial Reports: Bikers for Trump and Other Groups Planning to Retake Seattle Occupation Zone on July 4th."

In his post, Hoft wrote, "It’s being reported that a post on Facebook is announcing that a number of groups are planning to retake the Antifa occupation zone in Seattle on July 4th."

That's a bit misleading. It's not "being reported." It's being announced by a group that says it's planning to be in Seattle. It's an announcement, an invitation, not a news report, and it's not even clear who the group is.

For Hoft or anybody else to say that this is the Bikers For Trump or Hells Angels invading the Autonomous Zone is, to say the least, a huge overstatement.

The post on Facebook that Hoft refers to is titled "American Patriots Retake The Seattle Occupation Zone For America." It makes no mention of Hells Angels or of any motorcycle club.

The announcement says this (with my emphasis added):

On July 4th, Independence Day, a coalition of patriot groups and all who want to join are going to retake the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone for America. Antifa members are illegally occupying public property and terrorizing small businesses in the neighborhood. American patriots have agreed to come together again, remove the barricades illegally obstructing traffic, and free the people in the zone. 

We are not going to hurt anybody, break the law, etc. We are simply going to tear down the illegal barriers on public property, clean up the mess these communist kids made, and return the police station over to Seattle Police Department control. 

There are problems in that last paragraph. "We are not going to hurt anybody, break the law, etc.," it says. This hardly sounds like "kicking ass," as some on Twitter are speculating will happen.

And who in their right minds thinks that Antifa and the others occupying CHAZ will just step back and peacefully allow these people to disrupt their autonomous zone? They're patrolling the place with firearms.

They say they won't break the law? The local authorities are allowing the occupation of the zone, and also allowing the barriers.

Therefore, it's a bit strange to label that as "illegal." They say they want to "return the police station" to SPD, but that ignores the fact that SPD gave it away.

To Recap: Gateway Pundit blogged and tweeted that "Bikers for Trump and Other Groups Planning to Retake Seattle Occupation Zone," but he provided no substantiation that Bikers For Trump will even be involved. There is no mention of Bikers For Trump - or any other motorcycle club -  on that Facebook page. In fact, around 1:15 PM CT on Saturday, June 13 the group added this:

CONFIRMED LINEUP:
OATHKEEPERS
SUPER HAPPY FUN AMERICA

Bikers For Trump? Nope. Yet Hoft's Gateway Pundit post said "Initial Reports: Bikers for Trump and Other Groups Planning to Retake Seattle Occupation Zone on July 4th." Over on Twitter, there is no mention of this by Bikers for Trump PAC (@BikersTrump), Bikers For Trump (@trump_bikers), or by Bikers For Trump (@BikersForTrump), which has protected its tweets.

Is Hoft's blog post a total lie? Not exactly; there are people claiming they're going to Seattle on July 4th. But it's not exactly true either. It's misleading by saying that Bikers For Trump is involved and misrepresents the reality of the situation. It clearly plays to ignorance and fear with its sensationalism.