Sorry, That Viral Free Speech Photo Is from Bundy Ranch, Not Ferguson

9.32K

Hudson Hongo

08/20/14 01:30PM

Filed to: ferguson

Before you hit "retweet," you might want to source that political statement. On Tuesday night, thousands of Twitter users shared this image of a protest sign next to a "First Amendment Area" with the hashtag "#Ferguson," making it appear the picture was taken in the troubled St. Louis suburb.

This says it all. #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/bI74BUdCpK
— eldifusor (@eldifusor) August 19, 2014

Unfortunately for them, the picture comes from a different protest entirely, one that the Ferguson demonstrators and their supporters might have trouble mustering the same enthusiasm for.

In this photo taken at Bundy ranch in April, the pictured "First Amendment Area" sign is clearly visible next to Cliven Bundy himself, a man who presumably hasn't made the 1,300 mile journey to demand justice for Michael Brown.

Bundy, you'll remember, is the Nevada rancher who faced off against Federal officials over grazing rights earlier this year. During that incident, the Bureau of Land Management set up the controversial "First Amendment Area" before taking it down under public pressure.

[Images via Twitter/AP]

Antiviral is a new blog devoted to debunking fake news, online hoaxes and viral garbage. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter and send your tips to hudson.hongo@gawker.com.

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ロリコン Hudson Hongo 08/20/14 09:18PM

How silly of you. While that picture is not from Ferguson, that's exactly what the police did. They did set up a little free speech zone, and that's the reason the guy sent that tweet. But you wouldn't know right? It's not like you are a real journalist covering the facts from the ground. Instead of checking the facts you go on a ridiculous rant about Bundy.

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Hudson Hongo ロリコン 08/20/14 09:50PM

Yeah, you're right, dude, my hoax-debunking blog doesn't have enough on location reporting and my half sentence of editorializing is a "ridiculous rant." *eyes roll back so far they start spinning like a fucking slot machine*

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ロリコン Hudson Hongo 08/20/14 09:58PM

Where's the hoax? You wrongly supposed that the picture was taken from Ferguson when the guy never claimed so. They did set something similar from that.

The tweet message is simple: Ferguson got a free speech area.

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Hudson Hongo ロリコン 08/20/14 10:28PM

It serves me right for even engaging with this kind of insincere, insult-based criticism, but I'll try to lay it all out for you: I never said this was a hoax. Among other things, Antiviral covers misattributions like the Robin Williams death photo from last week that was of a real body but not of the late actor.

The tweet message was indeed simple, but also pretty vague and it gave the impression the photo came from Missouri, a fact numerous people noticed while it racked up thousands of retweets. How you believe that "This says it all. #Ferguson" clearly means "Ferguson got a free speech area" is baffling to me.

If you want people to respond to your criticism in the future, I'd strongly suggest you rely on the strength of your arguments instead of the dumb insults I made fun of in my first reply. It makes you look vicious and not very smart.

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ロリコン Hudson Hongo 08/20/14 11:45PM

Well, maybe you should check the facts before outright calling it a hoax? He used a related picture to get his point across. Gawker Media does it all the time.

See, they did set a free speech area. It is gone by the way, they changed they mind really fast after that tweet.

To call it a hoax is silly. You are not debunking anything, only making a fool of yourself for making presumptions. Yes, that's not a picture of the free speech area they set up in Ferguson, but then again, he never said so.

In fact by simply calling it a hoax without saying that the free speech area was in place you are doing the people a huge disservice.

But I get it. You are a hoax debunking blogger and Ferguson is the hot topic at the moment. Why not mix the two and get some clicks?

notinvalid Hudson Hongo 08/20/14 04:21PM

"... a man who presumably hasn't made the 1,300 mile journey to demand justice for Michael Brown."

But, of course, Hudson Hongo HAS made the trip and is amongst the protesters? Though not.

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Hudson Hongo notinvalid 08/20/14 04:35PM

I know reading comprehension can be pretty tough but my point was him and his sign probably aren't in Ferguson right now (i.e. the subject of this post).

Superkrakenesquire Hudson Hongo 08/20/14 04:51PM

If you really think anyone believes there was no undertone or implication by that sentence, then its truly amazing you have pursued a career in writing and/or you believe your readership are complete fuckwits.

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Hudson Hongo Superkrakenesquire 08/20/14 05:10PM

Are you clownin' dude? I didn't deny any "undertone" or "implication," I denied I was trying to use Bundy's non-presence in Ferguson as a strike against his character.

Here, I've written a special, ambiguity-free version of my sentence per your specifications: "Cliven Bundy is a racist who lives far away from Ferguson, MO and is unlikely to be there protesting about Michael Brown."

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chomskyandcheetos Hudson Hongo 08/20/14 02:45PM

holy shit what idiot at the BLM dreamt that up

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Hudson Hongo chomskyandcheetos 08/20/14 02:48PM

All the more surprising given the accepted Orwellian euphemism "free speech zone" had been in use for over a decade

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MaisNonEnfin Hudson Hongo 08/20/14 02:30PM

making it appear the picture was taken in the troubled St. Louis suburb.

"Troubled suburb"? Like a troubled teen, who doesn't quite know what to do? What the fuck?

Can we call a cat a cat and say something like "...was taken in the St. Louis suburb where shit has been hitting the fan"?

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Hudson Hongo MaisNonEnfin 08/20/14 02:35PM

I was troubled while trying to come up with the right adjective and agree this is both a more accurate and poetic description of Ferguson