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Fake news: Rosa Parks had no daughter who could praise Trump’s comments
A fake news story that said civil rights icon Rosa Parks’ daughter lauded President Donald Trump’s comments on clashes in Charlottesville, Va., was easily identifiable as fake news, because Parks didn’t have any children.
The headline on an Aug. 20, 2017, post on ForFreedomWorld.com read, "Breaking: Rosa Parks’ daughter praises Trump’s response to Charlottesville." The story was posted a week after Aug. 12 clashes between white nationalists and anti-racism protesters over efforts to take down Confederate monuments.
Facebook users flagged the post as being potentially fabricated, as part of the social media giant’s efforts to combat fake news.
The fake story is obviously designed to shock readers that the child of a civil rights hero like Parks could embrace controversial comments by Trump, who had called the violence in Charlottesville a result of "hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides."
The post quoted someone named Muriel Parks-Rosenberg speaking at an event at the Kennedy Center.
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"President Trump’s reaction has been criticized by the Left, but I don’t see what he did wrong," she is quoted as saying. "He strongly spoke out against hate both from those who make racial animus their primary cause and anarchists who showed up hoping to watch the world burn."
"My mother would have been proud of the President’s words," she allegedly told the crowd. "Liberals who seek to use this rally to further their cause and attack President Trump need to go away and never come back. To me, Donald Trump is a modern civil rights icon."
Parks is credited as helping spark the civil rights movement after refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955.
Parks died in 2005 at age 92. But she didn’t have a daughter who spoke in support of Trump, because Parks never had any children. The photo with the story is actually of Ohio state lawmaker Nina Turner.
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The story was originally posted on Aug. 19 on OurLandOfTheFree.com, a parody site that, like other sites that created stories we’ve debunked, attempts to fool conservatives with absurd stories.
OurLandOfTheFree.com said at the bottom of its home page that the site’s creators "make no guarantee that what you read here is true. In fact, it most definitely is not." Its About Us page noted, "All posts should be considered satirical and all images photoshopped to look like something they’re not."
Stories from sites like OurLandOfTheFree.com often are shared on other outlets, with no indication they are made up.
Notably, the Republican Party of Virginia was fooled by this story. A volunteer for the group posted the original link on the party’s Facebook page, but it was eventually removed.
This claim came from a website that fabricates all of its content. We rate it Pants On Fire!
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Our Sources
ForFreedomWorld.com, "BREAKING: Rosa Parks’ Daughter Praises Trump’s Response to Charlottesville," Aug. 20, 2017
New York Times, "Rosa Parks, 92, Founding Symbol of Civil Rights Movement, Dies," Oct. 25, 2005
Columbus Free Press, "Freep Heroes: Nina Turner," Feb. 1, 2017
PolitiFact, "If you're fooled by fake news, this man probably wrote it," May 31, 2017
PolitiFact, "In Context: President Donald Trump’s statement on ‘many sides’ in Charlottesville, Va.," Aug. 14, 2017
OurLandOfTheFree.com, "BREAKING: Rosa Parks’ Daughter Praises Trump’s Response to Charlottesville," Aug. 19, 2017
Loudoun Times-Mirror, "Virginia GOP shares fake ‘Rosa Parks’ daughter’ story on Facebook," Aug. 21, 2017
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Fake news: Rosa Parks had no daughter who could praise Trump’s comments
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