Major news outlets punked by NBA All-Star cancelation story

A story that the NBA gave North Carolina 30 days to repeal their discriminatory, anti-LGBT law (HB2) or the 2017 All-Star game would be moved from Charlotte, NC is false.

The story originally started with a website called Cleveland.com on Saturday, April 9. That website pulled down the story later, but not before major news outlets like the AP and National Public Radio picked it up.

According to thenewcivilrightsmovement.com (NCRM), “The AP seems to have reported the fake story, including the same quote, in an article hosted at Cleveland.com, without noting its source, as did PinkNews, an LGBT news site in England, which also did not note its source. The Sun-Times network also reported the story, later.”

As late as Sunday afternoon, the announcement was heard on public radio stations.

According to the NCRM website, “The fake news site forced the NBA to tweet a response denying it:

“RT @ NBAPR No truth to the fake abcnews account/report concerning the 2017 NBA All-Star Game. The NBA has made no new statements re: 2017 ASG. 9:27 PM – 9 Apr 2016.”

According to another website, www.good.is, “Two days after NBA legend Charles Barkley called for the Assocaition to relocate its 2017 All Star game from Charlotte, North Carolina to somewhere that doesn’t openly discriminate against the LGBT community, a news report circulated on Saturday saying that the Association had done just that.

“But it turns out the story, which was originally posted to a site called cleveland.com, was completely false. (The fact that anyone believed a site called Cleveland.com got this kind of scoop really speaks to how badly we wanted the news to be true.) The situation puts journalists in the uncomfortable spot of having to take down their own articles that re-reported the breaking story. People who are paid to know what’s going on don’t like to admit they’ve been had.”

A search Monday morning showed that such an assessment appears to be true. There are no stories from major news sources about the false story, and posts that originally ran it are simply gone.

No matter how much LGBTQ people, their allies, and progressives in general would like the news to be so, it simply is not.

The Gayly – April 11, 2016 @ 9:10 a.m.