MSNBC reported Wednesday that Governor Rick Scott was “too busy” to speak with students causing the teens to storm his office, chanting “shame on you!”
In reality, Governor Scott was attending a shooting victim’s funeral and agreed to speak with students later in the afternoon.
MSNBC’s Ali Velshi tweeted: BREAKING: students are in the waiting area of FL Gov. Rick Scott’s office – after being told he’s too busy to meet with them – chanting “shame on you!”
BREAKING: students are in the waiting area of FL Gov. Rick Scott’s office – after being told he’s too busy to meet with them – chanting “shame on you!”
— Ali Velshi (@AliVelshi) February 21, 2018
Fellow MSNBC host Katy Tur said on a live broadcast that Rick Scott is refusing to meet with the students.
“They flooded the governor’s office, and the governor is refusing to speak with these students,” Tur said. “These are students from across Florida. They’re students from Parkland … The survivors. It sounds like they’re not being heard.”
“They’re asking the governor to do something about rifles, to do something about assault weapons, to stop looking into immigration so much, and to focus on what is the issue that they’re there to talk about: weapons. Their lives,” Tur said.
Six minutes later, Tur said Scott’s office had called MSNBC to tell them he would be meeting with small groups of Parkland students for 20 minutes each at 5 p.m.
“Right now, he is not in the office. He is at the funeral, I believe, for a student,” Tur said. “That’s why he cannot meet with those kids right now. Obviously, they’re not happy about it. Those kids are still inside that office. They want to be heard. We’ll see if they wait there until 5:00 today.”
After Velshi’s tweet went viral with thousands of re-tweets and comments, he reported that Governor Rick Scott would be meeting with the students later in the afternoon.
No where did Velshi clarify to his 310,000 Twitter followers that Governor Rick Scott was actually attending a funeral which of course is intentionally misleading.
Furthermore, Ali Velshi’s follow up tweets received very few re-tweets so once again his fake news tweet received all the attention.
This is how fake news works. The lie is heard around the world before it is corrected.
Yes this is what he told NBC. He’s on his way back and will be meeting with them when he returns
— Ali Velshi (@AliVelshi) February 21, 2018
BREAKING: FL Gov Rick Scott says he WILL meet with students at 5p today
— Ali Velshi (@AliVelshi) February 21, 2018
MSNBC reporter Ali Velshi got pummeled by conservatives for spreading fake news.
i like how you didn’t tweet it’s because he was at a couple funerals today.
— xo (@sirensoIiIoquy) February 21, 2018
This tweet is extremely misleading since Governor Scott was at Coach’s funeral. Unacceptable.
— Candace (@RareCandace) February 21, 2018
Like attending the funeral of one of the victims?
This is #FakeNews and Ali admits it in one of the threads.
— Brian Rhiel (@BrianRhiel) February 21, 2018
Someone isn’t interested in learning that the governor was at a funeral for one of the victims. Delete your account.
— RUSSIAN BOT #221.8b (@MasturbatinPete) February 21, 2018
How do you forget to mention that “being too busy to meet with them” was because he was at several students funerals?? 3,900 RT’s to fit your own bias agenda BS
— mush (@R_Murph34) February 21, 2018
Video of students chanting “shame on you” to Rick Scott as MSNBC falsely reports the Governor is refusing to meet with the students:
Video and partial transcript via Washington Free Beacon