Inept fabulist and counsellor to US president Trump, Kellyanne Conway continued her campaign of foisting verifiably false information onto members of the press recently when she claimed a terrorist attack had taken place in Bowling Green. Now she’s the butt of a great many jokes on Facebook.
Image: AP Photo/Alex Brandon This isn’t even her final form.
Doubling down on her position as a source of “alternative facts”, Conway’s remarks were seemingly an attempt to both foster anti-Muslim sentiment and build distrust for the media. The fabricated attack — which she told Hardball‘s Chris Matthews was carried out by two Iraqi refugees — “didn’t get covered”, implying the press were complicit in covering up a massacre that never took place.
It backfired, big time.
What year this supposed attack took place, the number of casualties, or even which of the many Bowling Greens in the United States was never made clear by Conway. Even so, many Facebook users have taken to posting statuses that resemble the platform’s emergency Safety Check feature — a means of alerting friends and relatives of one’s well-being in the event of a catastrophic natural disaster or actual terrorist attack.
Facebook users have, to the relief of loved ones, claimed to be safe in Bowling Green, New York, Bowling Green, Kentucky and even specific businesses. There are additional Bowling Greens in Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia. We’ll of course update if a terrorist attack occurs retroactively in any of those states.
1/2: Honest mistakes abound. Last night, prominent editor of liberal site apologized for almost running a story re: tweet from fake account
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) February 3, 2017
2/2: yet won’t name him, attack him, get the base 2 descend upon him. Same with MLKJr bust fake story. It’s called class, grace, deep breath
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) February 3, 2017
Though Conway has since tweeted out a non-apology, coupled with a veiled threat towards the press, the damage was done. A tongue-in-cheek Bowling Green Massacre Relief Fund site has since appeared. Its donation links all redirect to the American Civil Liberties Union, which is presently embroiled in legal battles against the Trump administration’s terrifying overreaches on immigration policy and due process.
As the New York Times notes, two men posing as refugees in Kentucky’s Bowling Green were indicted on federal terrorism charges in 2011 for attempting to send arms and funding to Al Qaeda.
At the time, the story was picked up by the New York Daily News, ABC, USA Today, CNN, Fox, the Los Angeles Times, NPR and CBS among others.
Despite admitting the absence of any massacre by Iraqi refugees in any Bowling Green on any date at any point in United States history, Conway insists the story — from 2011 — requires more coverage, or is somehow indicative of media slant.
Maybe, just maybe, now is a good time to stop granting Conway interviews so she can gleefully mislead the American public.
The real lessons from Bowling Green. Who will cover? Who will care? https://t.co/gX9RNoXVUa
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) February 3, 2017