A gay and lesbian pride parade in Florida turned tragic when an attendee accidentally ran over and killed a fellow marcher, but several mainstream media outlets instead blasted out misleading headlines claiming the tragedy was a “terrorist attack.”
Wilton Manors’ Saturday “Stonewall Pride Parade” ended in tragedy when a member of the Fort Lauderdale Gay Men’s Chorus, driving a pickup truck in the parade, accidentally accelerated and ran over two fellow members.
One was injured, and another killed.
Despite having no information, and the fact the driver was in the parade and wearing a Fort Lauderdale Gay Men’s Chorus t-shirt, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis falsely claimed it was a “deliberate” and “targeted” terrorist attack.
“This is a terrorist attack against the LGBT community,” Trantalis dramatically announced at the scene within minutes. “This is exactly what it is. Hardly an accident. It was deliberate, it was premeditated, and it was targeted against a specific person. Luckily they missed that person, but unfortunately, they hit two other people.”
Mainstream media outlets and liberal social media accounts pounced on his claim, announcing it was a “right wing terrorist attack.”
Local Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was at the event as well, causing some liberal social media accounts to falsely claim she was the target and the accident was an “assassination attempt.”
They falsely blamed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, falsely claiming the attack was carried out under a new Florida law allowing people to legally run over parades and protests. No such law exists.
Despite being completely false, the term “DeathSantis” trended on Twitter for hours as liberals demanded the accident be used to arrest DeSantis on terrorism charges.
The “terrorism” claim was quickly debunked as the facts of the case emerged, but that didn’t stop several mainstream media outlets from blasting out Trantalis’ comments as out-of-context headlines to generate outrage clicks.
“Fort Lauderdale Mayor: Truck running into Pride parade ‘was a terrorist attack against the LGBTQ community,’” The Hill falsely posted to Twitter a half-day after the facts were known. “The Hill” is notorious for using false clickbait headlines that are not supported by the reporting in the linked story.
“This was a terrorist attack against the LGBT community; this is exactly what it is,” Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis told reporters after a truck drove into a crowd at a Pride parade.,” Newsweek blasted out on Twitter the next day, knowing the claim was false.
Even the normally conservative Washington Times got in on the frenzy, tweeting out “What we saw, it was a terrorist attack on the LGBT community” over 12 hours after that claim was debunked.
None of the outlets have corrected their misleading headlines and despite having rules against disinformation Twitter is not de-platforming website that repeats the false “terrorist attack” claim.
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Michael Brigham
Michael Brigham has written for American Action News since the summer of 2019. His areas of expertise include foreign affairs, government, and politics, but regardless of the subject matter, he has a nose and an insatiable appetite for news. In his free time, he enjoys reading nonfiction, watching a mix of comedies and true crime documentaries, and spending time away from the swamp hiking in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
An accident doesn’t fit the narrative. You are a racist homophobe for trying to counter the narrative with facts. You are also probably a white male, trying to flaunt your white privilege, so no one should pay any attention to your fact-based ravings.
Opps!!! Queer on queer crime
Shame this tragedy for the family and friends of the victim continues to be so political because the Mayor, obviously shaken at the moment it all happened, reacted in haste because of all he has experience fearing that this was a hate crime attack when it happened to be an accident.
Trantelis is obviously a LIAR……oh wait he’s a Democrat so that’s redundant.
Twitter is garbage feed.
They remain silent when its black on black crime, black on white crime, gay killing another gay? Only focus on supposed Conservatives Media is sick and soulless