April 17, 2019 - How One Man's deleted Tweet launched a Worldwide Notre Dame Conspiracy Theory
How One Man’s Deleted Tweet Launched a Worldwide Notre Dame Conspiracy Theory
By
William.Sommer@thedailybeast.com (Will Sommer),
As politician Christopher J. Hale watched the Notre Dame cathedral burn on Monday from Washington, D.C., he heard from a Jesuit friend in Europe who claimed that the blaze had been deliberately set.
Hale, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Democrat in Tennessee last year and writes opinion columns for Time Magazine, tweeted his friend’s claim to his few thousand followers.
"A Jesuit friend in Paris who works in #NotreDame told me cathedral staff said the fire was intentionally set,” Hale wrote.
Hale quickly tweeted that his friend had “zero evidence” for the claim beyond a purported conversation with cathedral staff, and he deleted the original tweet minutes later.
But it only took those few minutes for his tweet to become a core piece of proof for right-wing conspiracy theorists who are convinced, without any actual evidence, that the fire was set by terrorists. With one tweet, Hale became sucked into a right-wing media machine eager to both rile up its audience and earn more traffic on social media.
“In retrospect, I absolutely never should have tweeted it in the first place,” Hale told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. “I don’t think I had the foresight about how much the worst parts of the internet will grasp for straws in their conspiracy theories.”
Before he deleted the post, Hale’s post caught the eye of Jack Posobiec, a former promoter of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory who now works as a reporter at pro-Trump cable channel One America News. Posobiec highlighted Hale’s claim that the fire had been deliberate to his own followers, which number more than 450,000.
Suddenly, Hale saw Twitter users across the world citing his tweet as proof that fire was committed by terrorists.
“I almost immediately said I was deleting the tweet,” Hale told The Daily Beast. “It was clear to me, though, that any record of the tweet was going to be weaponized very quickly.”
Hale’s tweet has become one of the most cited pieces of evidence for Notre Dame conspiracy theorists, even after French investigators said Tuesday that they found no evidence of arson and even though Hale was thousands of miles away from the fire when he sent his tweet.
Screenshots of Hale’s deleted tweet spread across Twitter. InfoWars wrote an entire article based on Hale’s tweet, citing it a headline as proof that the fire was “deliberately set.”
Far-right activist Pamela Geller highlighted Hale’s tweet on her blog in a post entitled “Notre Dame Cathedral Inferno “Intentionally Set.’” Geller’s post spread on social media, earning hundreds of retweets on her Twitter account alone. Other right-wing blogs, including
The American Mirror and
talk radio host Michael Savage’s site, also picked up and portrayed Hale’s unintentional error as fact.
“The tweet itself did not mention Islam whatsoever,” Hale said. “But immediately it was right-wing provocateurs, Islamophobes, who used it.”
A day later, Hale’s Twitter interactions are filled with people who see the deletion of his tweet as proof of a cover-up.
Should I use the Obama, ‘It’s a teachable moment?’” Hale said. “The big thing I would say is the weaponization of Twitter has evolved in such a way that no errant word, particularly in the midst of a crisis, is warranted.”
Priest 'rushed into Notre Dame' to save Crown of Thorns from raging inferno
Shep Smith Shuts Down Guest Who Suggests Notre Dame Fire Might Not Be Accidental
Shep Smith Shuts Down Guest Who Suggests Notre Dame Fire Might Not Be Accidental
Shep Smith Shuts Down Guest Who Suggests Notre Dame Fire Might Not Be Accidental (Video)
A Fox News on-air interview about the Notre Dame fire in Paris was abruptly shut down after a French guest suggested — without any proof — that the fire consuming the famed cathedral may not have been the result of an accident.
On Monday, Philippe Karsenty, a former French right-wing political candidate, suggested to Shep Smith that the church fire may have been set by possible terrorists, a theory that had already been floated by InfoWars soon after the fire began.
“It’s like a 9/11, it’s a French 9/11, you know? And it’s a big shock,” Karsenty told Smith, adding, “we’ve had churches desecrated each and every week all over France.” Karsenty then went on to say that “of course, you will hear the story of the political correctness which will tell you it’s probably an accident.”
'There Is No Invasion'“ Sir, we’re not going to speculate here of the cause of something which we don’t know,” Smith quickly interjected. “If you have observations or you know something, we would love to hear it.”
Karsenty explained: “I’m just telling you something, what we need to be ready,” but Smith shut him down a second time before cutting him from the segment entirely.
“No, sir, we’re not doing that here, not now, not on my watch,” Smith said.
“The man on the phone with us has absolutely no information of any kind about the origin of this fire and neither do I.”
“The fire investigators will at some point come to a determination about what caused this and conspiracy theories about anything are worthless and in many cases counterproductive and injurious to society,”
Smith added. “And those who entertain them are not acting in the best interests of the people of this planet.”
Karsenty, a French media analyst, was
convicted in 2013 of defamation after he accused a state television network of staging a video of a young boy being killed during a fight between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers.
You can watch the full exchange in the video below. (at the Wrap link above).
~~~
Stefan Roth @dasroth
Another one that is sad about the fire in notre dame
#notredamefire #notredame pic.twitter.com/UqNwaudgjQ
pic.twitter.com/hCfGO8c9yd
