The website go2clix.info posted an article accusing the Owner of the Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia, Stephanie Wilkinson of threatening White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders after the now-famous incident last week when Sanders was asked to leave the restaurant.
Facebook’s fact-checking system quickly caught the article for third-party fact checkers to scrutinize.
“Red Hen Owner Just Issued Sick Threat To Sarah Sanders After Biz Was Destroyed By Booting Her,” the headline claims.
The article, paired with a YouTube video narrating the text in an automated robot voice, does not cite evidence of a “sick threat” made by Wilkinson. Half of the post simply quotes a story from Vice which, in turn, cites the original reporting from the Washington Post, who interviewed the owner. “I would have done the same thing again,” Wilkinson told the Post. “We just felt there are moments in time when people need to live their convictions.”
Go2clix.info could be suggesting that Wilkinson’s lack of regret and statement that she “would have done the same thing again” are some form of a “sick threat” toward Sanders. But the hyperbole misdirects readers and is, at best, inaccurate.
Also, the Red Hen has not been “destroyed.” Despite protests—including the catapulting of chicken dung at its premises—the Red Hen is still in operation contrary to go2clix.info’s claim. (TWS Fact Check realizes that this, too, might be hyperbolic language of the Twitchian variety.)
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