The press secretary for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was allegedly “duped” into believing a false story about a “homophobic dog” on International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.
Christina Pushaw, the press secretary, tweeted the alleged screenshot of a Washington Post article on Tuesday featuring a white dachshund and the headline: “This dog is the new face of homophobia.”
“More cutting edge journalism from the 49 year old Washington Post activist,” Ms Pushaw wrote above the screenshot.
While the photoshopped image included a byline forThe Post’s technology reporter Taylor Lorenz, it was quickly debunked by senior politics reporter Aaron Blake.
“This is not a Washington Post or TaylorLorenz story,” he said. “It’s a headline cut and pasted on to our template from another website.”
The creator of the fake story, “Chuck”, also waded in further and tweeted: “No f***ing way... It has come to my attention that Ron DeSantis’ press secretary has stolen my edit out of an inability to differentiate between satire and reality, please share your collection of dog memes under her post.”
According to LGBT Nation, the white dachshund from the “homophobic dog” article has appeared in multiple memes that appear to target LGBT+ people, but which its owners say are “satirical”.
“Through satire and this meme, we’re kind of exposing when people who just aren’t up with the times and people who aren’t very forward toward gay people,” said one of the dog’s owners, Ben Campbell, in March.
Other internet users allegedly began imposing “homophobic” statements on top of images the dog the couple shared to Instagram, with slogans poking fun at LGBT+ people such as “Whoa that’s a little bit too gay”.
Ms Pushaw, who did not appear to apologise for spreading a fake story on International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, tweeted back at Mr Blake and said: “Have you tried crying about it? That might help”.
She has reportedly previously taken aim at The Post’s Ms Lorenz, who told the Daily Dot on Tuesday: “I would have assumed a press secretary could recognise the difference between a fake screenshot from a meme page and a real news story, but apparently not.”
In a statement to The Independent on Wednesday, Ms Pushaw said: “The fact that the Washington Post felt the need to ‘fact check’ a satirical meme says a lot about the credibility of the Washington Post and none of it good. WaPo journalists would be happier if they stopped taking themselves and social media so seriously.”
