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Associated Press Tried to Stealth Edit a Fake News Story About Protests at Target. They Got Caught.

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  May 26, 2023 9:30 PM

Target is suffering a customer backlash over their transgender-inspired fashion for children, which includes tuck-friendly swimwear. Close to $10 billion has been lost in a week since the unveiling, prompting an emergency meeting with the company’s brass, which stood by their decision to wheel out these designs, though some locations have removed them from the shelves or pushed them to the back of the store. These items were also designed reportedly by a Satanist. It’s a mess that everyone could see coming based on a similar reaction to Bud Light’s marketing partnership with a biological male who pretends to be a woman. Bud Light was the most popular beer in America, and it’s now bleeding sales.

Then, The Associated Press opted to publish what appears to be fake news about violent protests erupting at some Target locations and stealth-edited the piece when the information turned out to be inaccurate (via Breitbart) 

Here is the AP’s published conspiracy theory: 

“Target removes some LGBTQ merchandise from stores ahead of June Pride month after threats to workers,” reads the fake headline. The story opens with these lies:

Target is removing certain items from its stores and making other changes to its LGBTQ merchandise nationwide ahead of Pride month, after an intense backlash from some customers including violent confrontations with its workers. 

The following day, the liars at the AP changed the story. Naturally, the story is still filled with unsupported allegations, but the AP’s conspiracy theories about threats and violence have been removed. But because the AP is a fake news outlet, no editor’s note explains the correction. The far-left hoaxsters are choosing to pretend it never happened. 

The new headline reads, “Target becomes latest company to suffer backlash for LGBTQ+ support, pulls some Pride month clothing”. 

Here is how the opening paragraph is stealthily rewritten: 

Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work,” Target said in a statement Tuesday.” Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.”

This isn’t the first time AP has done this, and it won’t be the last. Over at Hot Air, our friend Ed had a lengthy Twitter thread about AP’s stealth editing of a piece about Amanda Gorman’s poem being banned in a Florida school. Gorman read this piece during Joe Biden’s inauguration. The problem is that it wasn’t banned, its access hasn’t been restricted, and this is another case of fake news: