School tells parents that Amanda Gorman's poem hasn't been banned, but … re-shelved

Brett T. | 4:49 PM on May 25, 2023

He can’t find the post at the moment, but this editor remembers being pretty ticked off a few years ago when some busybody took it upon herself to rate which media outlets peddled fake news. Twitchy made the list, which is kind of infuriating because we’ve done hundreds of posts on “reputable” media outlets reporting actual fake news … like USA TODAY reporting that Amanda Gorman’s poem written for Joe Biden’s inauguration had been banned from a Miami-Dade school district. The source of that report was a statement posted by Gorman herself and was too good to check. It had been debunked by the next morning, though. That didn’t stop MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace from kicking off her show Wednesday with a discussion about the “banned” poem.

The school district in question has released a statement to parents explaining exactly what happened: They reviewed the book and decided it belonged in the middle school section rather than the elementary section of the library. They just moved the book from one shelf to another.

The school had to send out this message to parents today correcting the record because of the mob egged on by the press spreading falsehoods: pic.twitter.com/sgsl0HFstJ

— AG (@AGHamilton29) May 25, 2023

That gets cut off at the end, so here’s the entire statement:

So they moved the book but any kid can still check it out. Has Amanda Gorman posted an apology yet?

As we reported earlier, the Associated Press debunked its own headline with its report.

This is indisputably false and it was debunked over a day ago. A news organization that intentionally spread misinformation on something like this can’t be trusted to report on just about any topic. https://t.co/kXHHOqHzCc https://t.co/JhxQzGoYXN

— AG (@AGHamilton29) May 25, 2023

“Gorman vowed to fight back.” Against what?

And it’s about time we start calling out reporters directly. While @FRF_12 likely didn’t write the false “banned” headline, she did claim the book was put on a restricted list in the article.

Where did she get that from? There is no such list.

— AG (@AGHamilton29) May 25, 2023

Don’t forget CNN’s Abby D. Phillip who passed along the statement as fact.