Not a week goes by that the mainstream media and their allies in the Democratic party don’t work hand in hand to misinform the public in an effort to push false narratives about their political opposition.
This week has certainly been no exception to that rule, with the Associated Press among the numerous media outlets that have distorted a Florida high school’s decision to remove from their library a book that was very loosely based on the Diary of Anne Frank on the grounds that it minimized the Holocaust and depicted Frank as a young lesbian girl who fantasized about seeing women’s breasts.
Katie Couric was among the many so-called “journalists” who shared the story:
Note that the AP made no attempt to provide even the briefest of contexts in the headline, a dereliction of duty in my opinion since headlines (and the tweets that include them) are oftentimes all people will read about a story before forming an opinion. At first glance, it makes it look like the grades 9-12 Florida school in question didn’t want their students learning about the Holocaust and Frank’s experiences, so they pulled the book.
Except that’s not the situation at all.
The actual story did provide some detail, but unfortunately most of the people who linked to it and similar stories like it didn’t bother to read them, which we’ll get into in a minute.
But first, here’s what the AP reported:
A high school along Florida’s Atlantic Coast has removed a graphic novel based on the diary of Anne Frank after a leader of a conservative advocacy group challenged it, claiming it minimized the Holocaust.“Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation” was removed from a library at Vero Beach High School after a leader of Moms for Liberty in Indian River County raised an objection. The school’s principal agreed with the objection, and the book was removed last month.The book at one point shows the protagonist walking in a park, enchanted by female nude statues, and later proposing to a friend that they show each other their breasts.
They later noted that other books written about Frank including copies of Frank’s diary were readily available in Indian River County School District libraries and that state law requires public schools to teach about the Holocaust:
Other books about Anne Frank and copies of the published diary she wrote chronicling her time hiding from the Nazis with her family and other Jews in German-occupied Amsterdam remain in the school systems’ libraries. The Jewish teenager’s diary was published in 1947, several years after she died in a concentration camp, and it has become a classic read by tens of millions of people around the world.By law, Florida schools are required to teach about the Holocaust, and nothing has changed in that respect, [school district spokeswoman Cristen] Maddux said.
Not surprisingly, other media figures and Democrats didn’t read the fine print on the story, and ran with the false narrative that the AP and other “news” outlets painted with their deceptive headlines.
National Geographic writer David Beard was among them:
Rolling Stone/NY Magazine journalist Jay Michaelson, also a CNN contributor, was on the same wavelength:
A tweet from MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow insinuated that people should read between the lines:
Failed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried also chimed in, using a misleadingly-headlined story from WFLA:
Self-described Democratic National Committee member Thomas Kennedy proclaimed this was just further proof of the supposedly dire “free speech” issues in Florida:
Progressive trial lawyer “Trial Lawyer Richard” called it an outright banning:
The Iowa Safe Schools group labeled it “Holocaust denial”:
There were some media outlets who ran the AP story but provided some important context in their tweets:
“Banned,” I should note, is a rather strong word considering the book at the center of this “controversy” is still available on Amazon and elsewhere, presumably in public libraries all across Florida.
The Moms For Liberty Twitter account also explained their rationale for requesting the book be removed and the reasons why it ultimately was:
Twitter user Theo Jordan shared images from the book so followers could draw their own conclusions about the appropriateness of the book being made available to high school teenagers:
The man has a point.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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