Certain news outlets were fooled by white nationalists and coordinated internet trolls into publishing a false claim that the Florida school shooter was a member of an extremist group. The Republic of Florida told the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that Nikolas Cruz was part of their organization. Joan Donovan, a researcher of online fake news, “…called this an instance of ‘source hacking,’ a tactic by which fringe groups coordinate to feed false information to authoritative sources such as ADL researchers. These experts, in turn, disseminate the information to reporters, and it reaches thousands of readers before it can be debunked.” The white nationalists groups consider the press an arch enemy and try to discredit them whenever possible. (Politico, February 16, 2018, by Shawn Musgrave)
In the aftermath of the Las Vegas shooting, Ben Strauss and Derek Robertson, Politico, October 2, 2017, reported that the right wing relished the opportunity to spread “false flag proclamations and conspiracy theories.” 4chan tried to link the shooter Stephan Paddock to the anti-Trump Antifa, and one right winger had him part of ISIS and a Communist takeover. Before the news even reached the East Coast, rumors and lies proliferated on the social media. Increasingly, the news media must spend at least as much time on debunking bogus news as on their own reporting.