Former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile was so eager for Colin Kaepernick to play in the NFL that she fell for a Twitter hoax.
The SportsCenter-parody account “SuperToughScene” tweeted out Thursday afternoon that “JUST IN: The New York Jets have signed free agent QB Colin Kaepernick to a 1 year / $9 million contract.(via @AdamSchefter).”
JUST IN: The New York Jets have signed free agent QB Colin Kaepernick to a 1 year / $9 million contract.
— SportsCenter (@SuperToughScene) April 9, 2020
(via @AdamSchefter) pic.twitter.com/bXSZSQLtwH
The account homepage is labeled as a parody, yet many people and legitimate news outlets fell for it, Ms. Brazile among them.
“Thank you @nyjets for signing this amazing athlete,” she wrote, according to a screenshot of her tweet captured with laughter by Steve Guest, the RNC rapid response director.
Less than an hour later, Ms. Brazile deleted the tweet and posted a story about the parody.
“Sorry tweet hearts,” she wrote.
She was far from alone though.
The “it was a parody” story she tweeted out with her own mea-culpa came from the Twitter account of WGHP, channel 8, in Greensboro, North Carolina.
However the Fox affiliate was one of the legitimate news outlets that fell for the parody.
“FOX8 reported the false information in error,” the station acknowledged in its story on the successful hoax.
Links to a WGHP story with the headline “New York Jets sign quarterback Colin Kaepernick” were being directed to the story about the hoax and the station’s acknowledgement.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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