Liberal Daily Beast thrashed for saying Ted Cruz defended Nazi salutes at school board meetings: 'It's a lie'
'I am no fan of Cruz, but this is not a fair headline,' one liberal activist wrote
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Daily Beast was ridiculed for reporting "disinformation" with its framing that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was a Nazi defender during Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The left-wing site published an article by reporter Justin Baragona headlined, "Ted Cruz Defends Parents Doing Nazi Salutes at School Board Meetings," which claimed the Republican lawmaker "at one point defended parents throwing up Nazi salutes at school board meetings" when Cruz actually asked if such a gesture was protected by the First Amendment.
"I am no fan of Cruz, but this is not a fair headline," liberal activist Lawrence Lessig tweeted.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Journalist Glenn Greenwald took notice and scolded the Daily Beast in a series of scathing tweets.
"To say @Lessig is no fan of Cruz or the GOP generally is a huge understatement. Yet even he sees the headlines from the Daily Beast and other liberal outlets claiming Cruz ‘defended’ the Nazi Salute are such blatant lies that he had to denounce it," Greenwald wrote. "They fabricate constantly."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Daily Beast was ridiculed for reporting "disinformation" that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, defended parents doing Nazi salutes.
Greenwald called the Daily Beast article "pure, 100% fabrication, complete fake news, disinformation, whatever you want to call it" and predicted it won’t get silenced by Big Tech because it targets a Republican.
"There will never be any Twitter or Facebook bans of it or labels or whatever, let alone retractions, because it serves the right ideology," Greenwald wrote.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Greenwald pointed out that the "viral lie came from the epicenter of media fabrications, the fabulist virus himself," left-wing journalist Aaron Rupar, who shared the misleading claim on Twitter. It was widely shared by progressives, including Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., who wrote, "Just Ted Cruz defending Nazis."
Journalist Glenn Greenwald slammed The Daily Beast, saying the liberal site lied about Ted Cruz. (Fox News)
Rupar has long had a reputation of sharing out-of-context clips on Twitter to his more than 700,000 followers and even got the attention of Urban Dictionary earlier this year. The popular website that allows the public to submit definitions for new or slang terms unveiled the verb "rupar" in March.
"To purposely mislead. To completely mischaracterize a statement or video by omitting context," the definition read.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"This is one of the many plagues causing liberal digital outlets to (justifiably) fail. They live in a closed ecosystem of information, speaking only to and for each other. So the most prolific media liar, @atrupar, claims ‘Ted Cruz defends Nazi salutes’ and they all repeat it," Greenwald wrote. "It takes about 6 working brain cells to watch this clip and see everything @atrupar claimed is a lie."
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Greenwald noted "The ‘Nazi salute’ was an accusation the state is acting like fascists, not a defense of Nazism," "Cruz's point is it's protected speech," and that the attorney general agreed with the Republican senator.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Yet that's not how digital media works. They see a viral claim they know flatters their readers' ideology: TED CRUZ IS A NAZI DEFENDING NAZISM. So they repeat it without any critical thought, not caring in the slightest that it's a lie. That's why they're failing -- and should," Greenwald wrote.
Cruz retweeted Greenwald’s criticism of the article but declined further comment when reached by Fox News Digital.
Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.