The Canadian Prime Minister has slammed Fox News for reporting ‘fake news’ in light of the recent terror attack on the mosque in Quebec.
Yesterday, the American news outlet posted an incorrect tweet about the Quebec terror suspect, claiming they were of Moroccan origin which was factually inaccurate, indy100 reports.
They initially ran with the headline, ‘Suspect in Quebec mosque terror attack was of Moroccan origin, reports show,’ choosing to share the misleading information to their thousands of followers.
In fact, the suspect has been identified as French Canadian Alexandre Bissonnette, who is an avid supporter of Donald Trump and far-right politician Marine Le Pen.
Just Trudeau wasn’t going to take the news organisation’s dissemination of ‘fake news’ lightly and came down on them like a ton of bricks.
Enraged by the irresponsible tweet Fox News had posted, purposely cultivating division and hatred which could be extremely dangerous and perpetuates ill-feeling around the world, he formulated a response.
Tonight, we gathered in Quebec City as one community, as one country, and as one family. #TousUnis pic.twitter.com/NyHWR0yzqk
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) January 31, 2017
He then got his director of communications involved, who wrote a lengthy email to Fox News and tweeted it to them for all the world to see.
She wrote:
Earlier today I sent an email to @FoxNews about their misleading tweet yesterday. We will continue to stand up for our citizens (1/3) pic.twitter.com/sGz47PxMcb
— Kate Purchase (@katepurchase) January 31, 2017
(2/3) pic.twitter.com/QLABzidxa4
— Kate Purchase (@katepurchase) January 31, 2017
(3/3) pic.twitter.com/PosgwkBJqR
— Kate Purchase (@katepurchase) January 31, 2017
Finally brought in to question for their actions, Fox News took down their inaccurate tweet last night.
Their Managing Director, Refet Kaplan said:
FoxNews.com initially corrected the misreported information with a tweet and an update to the story on Monday.
The earlier tweets have now been deleted.
We regret the error.
Mosque attack suspect formally charged w/ six counts of murder; Second man cleared, identified as a witness https://t.co/oRzxGHEXDm
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 30, 2017
This is just one in a long line of misleading and inaccurate ‘fake news’ stories about, which cultivate terrible attitudes and spread the wrong messages worldwide.
It’s brilliant to see the Canadian Prime Minister taking the lead and showing a great example, by shutting down organisations which are happy to twist and bend the truth to their own needs.
Hopefully other politicians and world leaders will take a leaf out of Justin’s book and start cracking down on these dangerous ‘news’ outlets.
