Canada outraged at Fox News for falsely reporting the Quebec terrorist was Moroccan

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Alexandre Bissonnette. He is the only suspect in the fatal shooting of six at Centre Culturel Islamique de Qubec. Bissonnette is a fan of US president Donald Trump and French nationalist leader Marine Le Pen
Alexandre Bissonnette. He is the only suspect in the fatal shooting of six at Centre Culturel Islamique de Qubec. Bissonnette is a fan of US president Donald Trump and French nationalist leader Marine Le Pen
In the first chaotic hours after the Quebec City mosque massacre, police detained two men: a French Canadian and one born in Morocco.

Plenty of outlets reported both arrests. But no one did it quite like Fox News.

The Canadian, Alexandre Bissonnette, was mentioned nowhere in Fox’s tweet Monday, which announced: “Suspect in Quebec mosque terrorist attack was of Moroccan origin.”

Mohamed Belkhadir was quickly released and cleared of involvement, but Fox’s tweet stayed up for nearly two days — until the Canadian prime minister’s office wrote the outlet to demand a retraction.

Belkhadir later explained that he’d been trying to help people killed and wounded in the attack when police picked him up.

“He said he had been clearing snow off the steps outside the mosque when he heard gunshots,” the Guardian reported. “When the noise stopped, he called 911 and entered the mosque.” He fled when an armed man arrived — not realizing it was a police officer.

Bisonnette, meanwhile, surrendered and is now charged with carrying out the attack by himself.

Anyone who clicked the link on Fox’s tweet would have read a story in which Belkhadir’s ethnicity led the news.

“One of two gunmen who shouted ‘Allahu akbar!’ as they opened fire at a mosque in Quebec City was of Moroccan origin,” Fox wrote, quoting a witness and local reports, according to a Google cache of the original story.

Along with the erroneous tweet, those details spread online into anti-Islamic circles and helped create a false narrative that the attacker was Muslim.


“As I predicted last night, the shooters in the Quebec mosque attack are Muslim, as is generally the case in these circumstances,” blogger Pamela Geller wrote, linking to the Fox Story.

It’s hardly the first time an innocent person was caught up in the media scramble that follows major violence. It happened to Rollie Chance — misidentified as the Navy Yard shooter in 2013. And to a man who got death threats after police falsely labeled him a suspect in the massacre of officers in downtown Dallas.

Fox said it put out a new tweet and corrected the report within hours. (Its original story, which is now accurate, contains no indication that it was modified.)

But Fox didn’t seem in any hurry to take down its old tweet about the Moroccan mosque suspect, which kept being shared for another day — until the leadership of Canada took offense.

“These tweets by Fox News dishonor the memory of the six victims and their families by spreading misinformation, playing identity politics, and perpetuating fear and division within our communities,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s communications director wrote to Fox.

“To paint terrorists with a broad brush that extends to all Muslims is not just ignorant — it is irresponsible,” wrote spokesperson Kate Purchase, who shared the letter in a tweet.

“We ask that Fox News either retract or update the tweet to reflect the suspect’s actual identity.”

Sure enough, Fox then took down the offending tweet and released a statement of its own.

“The earlier tweets have now been deleted,” wrote Refet Kaplan, managing director of Fox News’s website. “We regret the error.”

The Canadians seemed appeased.

WASHINGTON POST

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16 responses to “Canada outraged at Fox News for falsely reporting the Quebec terrorist was Moroccan”

  1. “The Canadian, Alexandre Bissonnette, was mentioned nowhere in Fox’s tweet Monday, which announced: “Suspect in Quebec mosque terrorist attack was of Moroccan origin.”
    Mohamed Belkhadir was quickly released and cleared of involvement, but Fox’s tweet stayed up for nearly two days — until the Canadian prime minister’s office wrote the outlet to demand a retraction.”

    Belkhadir was the one who called 911 and saved many lives.

    This is disgusting cry Antisemitism!
    YaLibnan became the hub for Islamophobia — Palestinian, Russian, Iranian, China –hatred– in line with Zionists Wahhabi Emirates and the Hasbara it has merited.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b3172336700e55ac1767926626cde1e73150ba5774b4873bef130354c07b455a.jpg

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      Canadians will NOT be silent about the fake, and half-truths, and outright lies … but talking about it in here lately seems to have become a futile effort.

      1. What won’t they be silent about? The “Palestinian Islamophobia”, the “China-hatred”, the “Zionist Wahhabi Emirates and the Hasbara it has merited”? Or about your unhinged Hezbollah-loving muse missing her medications again? 🙂

        1. Canada is not YaLibnan a hub of hasbara, the enemies of free speech and liberties, striving knowing there are no monitors.

          ‘Israel’s Government Is Paying College Students to Spread
          Pro-Israel Propaganda on Social Media’
          http://thehigherlearning.com/2014/07/11/israels-government-is-paying-college-students-to-spread-pro-israel-propaganda-on-social-media/

          ‘Israel To Pay Students For Pro-Israeli Social Media Propaganda’
          http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/08/14/israel-pay-students-propaganda_n_3755782.html

          ‘Israeli propaganda war hits social media’
          http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/government-it/israeli-propaganda-war-hits-social-media-20140717-ztvky.html

          1. Rudy1947 Avatar

            Debunking anti-semitic propaganda is free speech as well.

          2. That’s what the Israeli government is paying you for, to deny and spam is also free speech.

          3. Rudy1947 Avatar

            Is Hamas or Hezbollah paying you?

          4. Another no discussion spam.

            “c.450 BC: Herodotus, The Histories[42], First historical reference clearly denoting a wider region than biblical Philistia, referring to a “district of Syria, called Palaistinê”[43][10][44] (Book 3[45]): “The country reaching from the city of Posideium to the borders of Egypt… paid a tribute of three hundred and fifty talents. All Phoenicia, Palestine Syria, and Cyprus, were herein contained. This was the fifth satrapy.”;[c] (Book 4): “the region I am describing skirts our sea, stretching from Phoenicia along the coast of Palestine-Syria till it comes to Egypt, where it terminates”; (Book 7[46]): “[The Phoenicians and the Syrians of Palestine], according to their own account, dwelt anciently upon the Erythraean Sea, but crossing thence, fixed themselves on the seacoast of Syria, where they still inhabit. This part of Syria, and all the region extending from hence to Egypt, is known by the name of Palestine.” One important reference refers to the practice of male circumcision associated with the Hebrew people: “the Colchians, the Egyptians, and the Ethiopians, are the only nations who have practised circumcision from the earliest times. The Phoenicians and the Syrians of Palestine themselves confess that they learnt the custom of the Egyptians…. Now these are the only nations who use circumcision”[47][48]”

          5. Rudy1947 Avatar

            That’s nice, then have the PaliArabs move to Syria.

          6. Tell it to Lebanese Maroni-Arabs, who fled Damascus
            from Nestoriens and Jacobian in 400 AD up to a mountain
            in Syria called; Jabal Loubnan.

          7. Rudy1947 Avatar

            400 AD…..OK. I’m sure that means something to an historian or perhaps an archeologist, but means zero today. Any coins?

          8. God chosen means zero today. Any tapes of God’s voice?

          9. Rudy1947 Avatar

            Certain Christians define themselves as “chosen”. From my experience everyone feels they are chosen for something, sometimes for very little. As for as your God’s voice….. you’ve got to be drunk.

          10. So Abraham was drunk.

  2. FakeOX News, stupidity in at its best. I laugh at people when they start by saying “I was watching Fox News…” The only thing I watch on FOX is the NFL.

  3. FUX Fulitzer prize invent’s this
    “One of two gunmen who shouted ‘Allahu akbar!’ as they opened fire at a mosque in Quebec City was of Moroccan origin,” Fox wrote, ‘quoting a witness and local reports’

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