‘Fake news’ & CAIR fail to spoil Center’s Mar-a-Lago event

The Palm Beach Post and Washington Post teamed up with the Islamists at CAIR to derail the Center for Security Policy’s Keeper of the Flame celebration at Mar-a-Lago.

They failed.

In a last-minute attempt to provoke the Trump Organization to cancel the Center’s November 23 Flame Dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold apparently cribbed from the Palm Beach Post‘s Christine Stapleton and Wikipedia.

Fahrenthold’s November 22 article mirrored Stapleton’s themes, storyline, and sourcing of October 18. However, Fahrenthold didn’t credit the Palm Beach Post in his story. Real journalists call this plagiarism.

The Palm Beach Post is the hometown paper of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.

Working with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Fahrenthold wrote a fake-filled hit piece in the Post after the Palm Beach story failed to have its desired effect.

Center President Fred Fleitz pushed back against the Post writer and his editors. “What an embarrassing piece of fake news,” Fleitz told Fahrenthold.

“This article falsely smears my organization. It is sloppy journalism and grossly misrepresents my organization and our work,” Fleitz said. “I demand it be retracted.”

Of course, the Washington Post would not retract its plagiarized article.

Fahrenthold submissively toes the CAIR line

Fahrenthold recycled a phony Wikipedia narrative accusing the Center of having an anti-Muslim bias, citing CAIR as a credible source against the Center and its founder, Frank Gaffney. The Post article failed to report on CAIR’s well-documented ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and a federal court identification of CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator in financing international terrorism.

Instead, Fahrenthold called CAIR “mainstream.”

Farenthold’s beef isn’t with Islamists like CAIR. According to his own reporting, Fahrenthold has a problem with groups that warn of “Islamist infiltration.”

Fleitz to Fahrenthold: You ‘cut and pasted false allegations from Wikipedia’

Having tried to work with Fahrenthold quietly and collegially before the story ran, Fleitz hit back.

“Several dishonest, left wing journalists like the Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold and the Palm Beach Post’s Christine Stapleton deliberately misrepresented our organization, along with leftist groups like the SPLC and CAIR, hoping to get this event canceled. They failed,” Fleitz said.

It’s as if Fahrenthold cribbed from Stapleton, who wrote an earlier piece that falsely called the Center an “anti-Muslim group” and cited the SPLC and CAIR.

“Too bad you also didn’t bother to speak to people who know the Center and support it,” Fleitz told Fahrenthold. “Instead, you quoted from one group that opposes us and cut and pasted false allegations from Wikipedia.

“This is why we didn’t speak to you. This was a pre-conceived hatchet job.”

Palm Beach Post + CAIR + Wikipedia = Fahrenthold’s
Washington Post story

Setting up the backdrop, Stapleton breathlessly announced that a hate group was descending on the Trump resort in Palm Beach.

“Another anti-Muslim group has scheduled a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago, prompting the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy group to again ask the Trump Organization to cancel an event sponsored by such a group,” Stapleton “reported” on October 18.

Note Stapleton’s use of words: “another anti-Muslim group.” Stapleton and CAIR had previously pushed for an anti-Islamist group to be kicked out of Mar-a-Lago. Now they tried to lump in the Center for a repeat action.

Stapleton then referenced CAIR as “the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group.”

She said that the SPLC was “shocked” that the Trump Organization would let the Center for Security Policy hold an event at Mar-a-Lago.

Stapleton then dutifully quoted a CAIR spokesman to tee up the story and demand action: “The Trump Organization made the right decision to cancel a previous event hosted by an anti-Muslim hate group, and we call them to do so again.”

Stapleton tweeted from her @StapletonPBPost account, “Another anti-Muslim group to host event at Mar-a-Lago. Will Trump cancel this one, too?”

No, he didn’t.

It’s been more than a month and as of this writing, Stapleton hasn’t tweeted since.

Her failed attempt became the basis of Fahrenthold’s last-ditch attempt, five weeks later, to shoot down the Center in the Washington Post.

Fake news didn’t sway the Trump Organization.

“I am grateful that the management of Mar-a-Lago ignored the false attacks on my organization by these leftists,” Fleitz said on Twitter. “I regret that the two journalists I cited, plus several others, ignored what I told them about the Center for Security Policy because they wanted to smear us and President Trump.”

Hundreds of our supporters joined us a happy, exciting evening at Mar-a-Lago. Watch this space for details.