Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham — known for, among other things, being a supporter of racist political extremists and a proponent of disinformation about COVID-19 — became the laughing stock of Twitter on Friday.
The reason? She used a (false) article about new measures being taken in Toronto churches to champion Donald Trump in the upcoming U.S. election.
Ingraham, who has hosted the eponymous Laura Ingraham Show on the conservative news network for close to 20 years, tweeted "Will Joe Biden do more to protect religious liberty than Donald Trump? Not a prayer" this morning alongside an article titled “City of Toronto Bans Catholic Churches From Administering Holy Communion."
The tweet was was ostensibly intended to demonstrate how religious liberty in America is being threatened.
It quickly went viral as users understandably started grilling Ingraham for her apparent lack of geographic knowledge, and also for completely failing to read a news story before sharing it and using it to argue a point.
Though there is also a city named Toronto in Ohio, the piece makes it clear by the third sentence that it is referring to Toronto, Ontario.
Raise your hand if you know that Toronto is in Canada and not in the United States. https://t.co/0YOEMU9Vyd
— Dave Matt (@davematt88) July 17, 2020
The story in question, which was from far-right website Big League Politics, talks incorrectly (and in very biased terms) about the fact that now that indoor religious services are allowed again amid the health crisis, churches in Toronto have amended certain practices — such as giving and taking holy communion.
The Archdiocese of Toronto has indeed decided to start carrying out a sort of socially distant communion, where wafers of bread are handed to churchgoers to consume safely from two metres away instead of placed into their mouths directly, among other small adjustments as per Ontario Ministry of Health guidelines for operating during COVID-19.
But, the piece suggests that Communion is outright banned in Toronto, and calls the new practices a way of "using COVID-19 hysteria to escalate the war on Christianity."
Toronto is in Canada, you unbelievable idiot. pic.twitter.com/rRxcF2xnjo
— Holly Figueroa O'Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) July 17, 2020
The questionable source of the article coupled with Ingraham's notoriously controversial views, religious fervour and obvious ignorance made for the perfect Twitter storm.
"Oh no! We'll lose Toronto?!? News flash for you dear, Toronto is in Canada. And their border is closed to us because of trump's incompetent handling of the virus. We are now the third rate country everyone is closing their borders to. I can't stand all this winning," one user replied.
geography is hard
— 𝚔𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚗 (@KevINthe406) July 17, 2020
"Hurry, get the sharpie out we have some geography to change," another tweeted, referring to the time that Trump sharpied a different route for Hurricane Dorian on an official map of the storm's trajectory after he falsely stated that Alabama was due to be hit (and also the time Ingraham freaked out at a guest who mentioned the incident on her show).
Yet another simply stated "Toronto is in Canada. And also, that story is a lie. Do better. Be better."
And some tried to help the talking head out by sending along some maps of where Toronto is located.
People were also eager to point out how much better Toronto and Canada, in general, is faring as far as the coronavirus is concerned, with case numbers staggeringly low compared with virtually any U.S. city, and continuing to trend downward.
*psst* Toronto is in Canada... pic.twitter.com/pqAnzhG7Dq
— 🌊 Shane 🌊 🆘️🇺🇸😷 (@egheitasean) July 17, 2020
Ingraham has not yet responded to her little social media fiasco, but it seems that very few people were taking her seriously beforehand, anyway.
by Becky Robertson via blogTO
No comments:
Post a Comment