Yesterday, the Washington Post published an article by retail reporter Jackie Peiser on the disturbing trend of Target stores receiving bomb threats over their Pride- and LGBTQ-themed merchandise:
Target stores in at least five states were evacuated this weekend after receiving bomb threats. All stores are “currently open and operating regular hours,” Target said in a statement. https://t.co/ybPYzqNsgt
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 13, 2023
Wow. Sounds horrible, right? And no doubt these bomb threats are the work of right-wing anti-LGBTQ radicals, because who else would do something like that?
Target stores in at least five states were evacuated this weekend after receiving bomb threats. Though no explosives were discovered, the incidents tie into the backlash over the retail chain’s Pride Month merchandise.
The threats Saturday in parts of Oklahoma, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont and Louisiana mirror those made in recent weeks in Ohio, Utah and Pennsylvania. In most instances, unknown individuals emailed the threats to local news outlets. The FBI and the regional Joint Terrorism Task Force have been assisting with the investigation in some jurisdictions.
Well, that's it. We've read enough.
But maybe we should read a little more anyway ...
Your tweet is extremely descriptive. pic.twitter.com/rIatnnZZ89
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) June 13, 2023
News outlets in Vermont, New Hampshire and New York received the same threatening email Saturday, according to South Burlington Police Chief Shawn Burke. The message, which accused Target of betraying the LGBTQ+ community, named a store in South Burlington, Vt., and ones in Plattsburgh, N.Y., and in Keene and West Lebanon, N.H.
...
Police in Lafayette, La., searched two stores there and reviewed security footage after bomb threats were sent to multiple news organizations, according to KLFY. The unknown senders said Target “betrayed the LGBTQ+ community” and “are pathetic cowards who bowed to the wishes of far right extremists who want to exterminate us.”
Those seem like pretty important details. Maybe the most important details, actually. And yet for some reason, WaPo didn't think it was necessary to mention any of those details in their tweet (or even allude to them in their headline).
The threats were from radical lefties.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) June 13, 2023
Why aren't you reporting who made the threats? The tweet makes it sound as if it's people upset with the presence (rather than the absence) of Pride merchandise.
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) June 13, 2023
You left this out of your tweet: pic.twitter.com/OF1vLlsaX9
— Jennifer 🟥🔴🧙♀️🦉🐈⬛ 🦖 (@babybeginner) June 13, 2023
For anyone who wants to read the threat: pic.twitter.com/oFe1zfjz3G
— Jennifer 🟥🔴🧙♀️🦉🐈⬛ 🦖 (@babybeginner) June 13, 2023
What you have seen from the Washington Post is what scientists call lying by omission. WaPo is pushing a very specific narrative with their framing of the story, but that narrative is completely dishonest.
How Media Misleads & Manipulates You: The headline doesn’t specify who made the bomb threats. They want you to assume it was right-wing anti-LGBT activists. But if you read the entire article, though it’s paywalled, they buried the truth: the threats came from the alphabet mafia. https://t.co/n2JhrHK5ed
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) June 13, 2023
Remind us again why we should trust the Washington Post, or the mainstream media in general? Because we're drawing a blank.
Democracy dies in darkness… pic.twitter.com/pTReN1C29P
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) June 13, 2023
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Update:
In case you were wondering, it's not just WaPo who's trying to deceive people into believing the opposite of what's actually going on:
would you have any sense from these headlines that the threat was made for “betraying the LGBTQ+ community” pic.twitter.com/obe5kTOpFS
— Mike Solana (@micsolana) June 13, 2023
This is media malpractice, guys. Plain and simple.
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