They run long on animus, derogatory and demeaning stereotypes, and just straight up hatred for people they identify as 'other'. They are open spigots spewing biased media toxic waste.
We are seeing that in the latest ginned up Islamophobic controversy surrounding the new Somali candidate, Ilhan Omar, in Minneapolis.
The right wing bigot spigot is claiming that Ms Omar married her brother, married another man, committing presumably both incest and bigamy, and that she married her brother in order to commit immigration fraud.
All of those are highly unlikely under any circumstances, but least of all by someone running for public office and anticipating close scrutiny. Which is why it took a while for any reference from legitimate media to the right wing stink.
Today's Strib:
It is never a good sign when only right wing agit prop sites carry a story, especially if they break the story. They are not factual, but they are highly malicious, and appear to exist only to misinform, disinform and deliberately mislead their consumers. They love to perpetuate the most vile stereotypes and their bread and butter is to sling poo like angry apes. Their consumers are not critical thinkers, they don't question the media sewage they are spoon fed so long as it caters to their prejudice.Ilhan Omar, whose victory in a Minneapolis DFL primary last week virtually assured her of becoming the nation’s first Somali-American legislator, denied recent reports that she married her brother to commit immigration fraud while remaining married to the man who is the father of her three children.“Allegations that she married her brother and is legally married to two people are categorically ridiculous and false,” campaign spokesman Ben Goldfarb said Monday.The questions surfaced over the weekend in a report on the conservative website Power Line,...
The Strib continued with the other side of the story:
Ms. Omar's response to the allegations was appropriately succinct:Hennepin County records show Omar applied for a marriage license in 2002 but never used it. It was not immediately known whom she planned to marry. Seven years later, Omar married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in Eden Prairie, according to their marriage record. Elmi could not be reached for comment. Minnesota courts have no records of Omar and Elmi filing for divorce.Her campaign flatly denied that Elmi is her brother. It would only say that she and Ahmed Hirsi, who is pictured in campaign literature and is the father of their three children, are together and raising a family. The Star Tribune could not find records in Minnesota showing that the two ever married.
“A number of baseless, absurd rumors that don’t bear repeating have been made recently about my personal life and family. Let me be clear: They are categorically false.”The explanation I was given when I did my own fact checking was that there were many people with the same or similar names from eastern Africa, much as we could have a lot of Joan Smiths or John Petersons or Joe Johnsons in Minnesota. This appears to be the kind of information, same or similar names, that the bigot spigots used without further checking. Also I was informed that so far as the immigration fraud claims go, none of the dates claimed match those of family members of Ms. Omar. This is not the first time we have seen unfounded and poorly researched claims from the right; there was a similar pattern of stupid and malicious from the right wing nut group, Minnesota Majority, claiming all kinds of voter fraud that did not prove to be factually accurate. They also jumped the gun and over-reached accusations based on same or similar names that turned out to belong to completely different people. You'd think the right would learn from their mistakes, but clearly these are not mistakes, they are deliberate attempts to smear someone without regard to fact checking. They don't WANT to know the truth they just want to hurt individuals they regard as their opposition or targeted 'others'.
The bigot spigot; it's a conservative 'thing'.
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