Liberal blog Think Progress seemingly had a hot one on its hands.
Word was that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota) had a novel solution for all the unaccompanied illegal immigrant children coming across the U.S. border: Stick 'em in work camps!
Or as Think Progress reported Bachmann as calling them, “Americanization Facilities.”
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. speaks at Faith and Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority event in Washington, Friday, June 20, 2014. (Image source: AP/Molly Riley)
Think Progress even had quotes from Bachmann, according to its primary source, KCTV7 News in Kansas City:
“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,” Bachmann told Minnesota’s Twin Cities News Talk. “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.”
Bachmann was reported by Think Progress to have said the kids would get an education, too:
“Well, we’d of course want these facilities to be ideal, you know, for the children to work and learn,” Bachmann continued. “They’d spend half of their day working, and the other half learning what every child should learn, and that’s English, you know, English and American history. And as soon as they learn English with some degree of fluency, they can attend local schools, maybe with a voucher program, or something like that. And then they could work when they aren’t in school.”
What else did Think Progress report Bachmann as having said?
“I think this is a great way to bring businesses into the Texas and Arizona areas, and maybe other states struggling with low employment opportunities, thanks mostly to Obama’s policies,” Bachmann said. “It’s about opportunity, not just for these kids but for the American people.”
And this: “It helps the businesses, and if we can raise fifty-thousand God-fearing, English-speaking Americans, who understand real American values, then I’d say it’s a job well done.”
Talk about a winning news story for Think Progress.
Except it wasn't true. Any of it.
Why?
KCTV News in Kansas City is a parody site. Bachmann never made the statements. But Think Progress took the bait...and got hooked.
So Think Progress went back, added a cross-out font to the entire story, and offered this statement:
"The news site KCTV7 News is a parody. Rep. Bachmann (R-MN) never made the statement. We sincerely regret the error."
