The Iowa Farm Bureau has issued a statement on the bogus email flying around claiming that the group pulled its endorsement of GOP Sen. Joni Ernst:
A statement by the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation regarding a fake email: https://t.co/mgMzPX2be4
— Iowa Farm Bureau (@IowaFarmBureau) October 18, 2020
From the statement:
Recently, a fake email has been circulating through social media that Senator Ernst no longer has the support of Iowa Farm Bureau or our members. This email is fake, and any news reports that speak to its validity are false. Iowa farmers know Senator Joni Ernst understands agriculture and works tirelessly to increase the economic opportunities for Iowa farmers and rural America, and that is why the Iowa Farm Bureau was proud to designate her as a Friend of Agriculture. She continues to have our full support.
An image of the fake email, shared originally by an Iowa woman, quickly went viral as blue-checks amplified it without doing any fact-checking whatsoever:
.@rachelgirwin is the comms director for Schumer’s Super PAC. Here she is sharing a doctored email suggesting Joni lost the Iowa Farm Bureau endorsement.
This misinformation was shared and retweeted by @davidaxelrod, @greenfield64, and several other large accounts pic.twitter.com/bzCTk9cl2f
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) October 18, 2020
Of course, Bill Kristol shared it, too:
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) October 18, 2020
Here come the apologies:
Earlier I briefly retweeted another journalist who linked to this fake email before having second thoughts and deleting. The Iowa Farm Bureau says it is indeed fake. They still support Senator Joni Ernst. https://t.co/kna4vMhTKY
— Amanda Becker (@AmandaBecker) October 18, 2020
That "disendorsement of Ernst by the Iowa Farm Bureau is a fake, I've deleted my Tweet. Apologies.
— Jeff Greenfield (@greenfield64) October 18, 2020
The woman did delete her tweet rather quickly, but the damage was already done by that point:
I just deleted what appeared to be an email from Audubon Farm Bureau pulling away from a Joni Ernst endorsement. I posted it saying ‘this seems newsworthy’ and it started to go viral. I’ll repost if it is confirmed to be true. Not surprising because of Ernst failure last debate,
— Julie (@JulieGammack) October 18, 2020
… but I don’t want to play any role in disinformation if it’s not real
— Julie (@JulieGammack) October 18, 2020
The fake email, however, is still out there:
— Themis1988 ⚖️?? BidenHarris (@DevonMLewis) October 18, 2020
***
Join the conversation as a VIP Member