News Sites Get Duped By Satire About Bachmann ‘Americanization’ Camps

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 25, 2014, after the Supreme Court heard arguments on a case involving family-owned companies that provide health insura... Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 25, 2014, after the Supreme Court heard arguments on a case involving family-owned companies that provide health insurance to their employees, but object to covering certain methods of birth control that they say can work after conception, in violation of their religious beliefs. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke) MORE LESS
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Several news outlets and liberal blogs were fooled this weekend by a faux-news item that claimed Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) had advocated “Americanization” camps for undocumented migrant children.

Think Progress, as well as Daily Kos and Crooks and Liars, picked up a story from kctv7.com headlined “Michele Bachmann Suggests Labor Camps For Immigrant Children.” The report from KCTV 7, which bills itself as “a Kansas City news site,” stated that Bachmann advocated for “‘Americanization’ facilities” in an interview with a Minnesota talk radio station.

“I’m calling on all of us, Obama and Congress and everyone, to chip in and build special new facilities… `Americanization’ facilities, if you will,” the report quoted Bachmann as saying. “And we’d send these kids to these facilities, in Arizona and Texas and wherever else. And we’d get private sector business leaders to locate to those facilities and give these children low-risk jobs to do. And they’d learn about the American way of life, earn their keep, and everyone wins in the end.”

But as Raw Story pointed out, the article on KCTV 7 was lifted verbatim from The National Report, a satirical news website. KCTV 7 also appears to be a faux-news outlet, as Kansas City does have a news station with the call sign KCTV 5.

The outlets that ran with the satirical story have since corrected their original posts.

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