A disruption at a Baltimore performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” made national news today. A man stood up before the act break of the seminal Jewish musical and shouted, “Heil Hitler, Heil Trump,” holding his arm out in a Nazi salute.
The story ran like wildfire, with national outlets and reporters picking up the Baltimore Sun’s story of the “pro-Nazi and pro-Trump” salute. There’s just one problem: The police report investigating the incident clearly states that the man loathes President Trump.
In the police report obtained by the Washington Examiner, the reporting officer, Jake Aumack, says: “During my interview of [the suspect] … he advises that the final scene before intermission reminded him of his hatred for Donald Trump which caused him to stand up and yell, ‘Hail Hitler, Hail Trump’ [sic]. He further advises that everyone around him got angry, and he didn’t realize there were so many Trump supporters. It appeared to this officer based on my interview of Mr. Derlunas that his intention was to express his dislike of Donald Trump.”
This didn’t stop the fake news from proliferating. The Huffington Post called the incident an “anti-Semitic and pro-Donald Trump outburst.” The New York Post also deemed it a “pro-Trump outburst,” as did the Boston Globe. Dean Obeidallah called the incident “pro-Trump” on Twitter. Even though individual reporters have since realized the mistake, the fake news still runs rampant.
Errors are human, but reporters still must do their due diligence to scope out all of the facts, including easily obtainable police reports, before uncritically sharing tweets and articles filled with literal fake news.
