Anatomy of a Hoax

Explore the anatomy of media hoaxes and their impact on public perception.

By now, we should all be trained to expect that any story that elicits outrage on racial, ethnic, or ideological grounds that gets published in Pravda Media is a hoax. 

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Unfortunately, the hoaxes still work on a lot of people, because they are so sensitized by that same media complex to be outraged that they read the headlines alone and get furious. Their reasoning circuits and desire to understand the world as it really is have been short-circuited. 

Horrors! The Trump administration is erasing the heroism of black soldiers. Obviously, it is part of the Nazi white supremacist agenda of the Trump administration, because MAGA wants to racially purify the world

Plaques commemorating African American soldiers fighting against Nazi Germany in Europe have been removed from a U.S. military cemetery in the Netherlands.

Approximately 1 million African American soldiers fought in Europe during World War II.

More than 8,200 Americans are buried at the Netherlands American Cemetery in the southern village of Margraten, just east of city of Maastricht. Another 1,700 officially counted as missing have their names displayed at the site, according to the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), the U.S. agency responsible for the Dutch site.

A total of 174 African American soldiers are buried or memorialized at Margraten, according to the Dutch research project, the Black Liberators. It is the only U.S. military cemetery in the country.

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Of course, the plaques were "removed." And "quietly," too, because they hoped to erase history, not generate a "Streisand effect" that would bring even more attention to the brave sacrifice of African American soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the defense of freedoms they did not themselves fully enjoy yet. 

It's a compelling story. Or it would be if it were true. 

Newsweek blasted out a headline implying the Trump administration “quietly removed a memorial” for Black WWII soldiers.

But — shocker — when you scroll all the way down, buried under piles of narrative-fluff, they finally admit the truth:

??? ?????? ??? ???????.

??? ??????? ??? ????? “???????.”

??’? ???? ??? ?? ???? ?????.

That’s it. That’s the scandal.

They manufactured a racial outrage story out of a museum rotation schedule.

And they were counting on people not reading past the headline — because that’s how the media plays the game.

??? ????? ????? ??? ?????, ????????, ??? ?????????? ?? ??? ???? ???? ????? — ???? ???? ??????????? “????????.”

And if you still trust the press at face value after stunts like this… you’re not paying attention.

You don’t hate the media enough.

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But of course, it is not true. The premise is absurd on its face. 

Dutch media reported earlier this month two informational panels about African American soldiers in the mid-20th century war had been taken down in the cemetery's visitors' center. A local official who was granted anonymity to speak freely told Newsweek the ABMC did not inform authorities in the Limburg province, where the cemetery is located, of the removal.

The media obviously did a deep dive, investigating what was clearly a secret attempt to wipe away a vital part of history that emphasized the contributions of black soldiers to the liberation of Europe. It was hush-hush, just as the airbrushing of Stalin's enemies out of history was a secret attempt to change history. 

Except...

The ABMC told Newsweek in a statement that the visitors' center at Margraten had 15 magnetic panels "designed to be removed and rotated throughout the life of the exhibit to highlight as many individual stories as possible."

"Of these, four currently feature African American service members buried at the cemetery," the commission said.

Huh, what? The panels were designed to be rotated, highlighting different soldiers, not all of whom were black. So, you know, sometimes the panels would feature black soldiers, and other times they would feature soldiers of different races. In fact, the proportion of panels featuring black soldiers to white soldiers is vastly higher than that featuring white soldiers. Almost 10,000 soldiers are honored at the cemetery, of whom 174 are black. Four out of 15 of the panels feature black soldiers. None of them is being displayed at the moment because, well, that was how the panels were designed to be used in the first place. 

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"The exhibit at the Netherlands American Cemetery honors those military members buried or memorialized at the site regardless of race, creed rank or origin—a direct reflection of the makeup of our cemeteries," said the ABMC.

Newsweek has already added two modifications to the story, although not changed the spin. They had not bothered to ask the American Battle Monuments Commission why the panels were not currently on display, so they had to rush in the quotes at the bottom of the story. 

Oh. Well, that changes things. 

This is one way the hoaxes work. You see the same exact strategy on the "ICE abuses innocent migrants" stories, which conveniently omit the REASON why ICE was arresting certain illegal aliens. The "innocent father or mother" stories almost always turn out to be "violent felon arrested" stories when all the facts come out. 

But telling the truth harms the Narrative™, so they leave out the most relevant facts. 

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Because of course they do. 


David Strom

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