Former Georgia Democratic candidate for governor Stacey Abrams and MSNBC have promoted the fake news story that a poem read at the inauguration has been banned from public schools.
MSNBC host Nicole Wallace shared the alleged concern on the network with Abrams on Friday.
MSNBC, Abrams Team Up To Spread Fake News On Poem-Banning 'Tyrants' https://t.co/qMvhCIZZSr
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) May 29, 2023
"During their conversation, Wallace mourned to Abrams, 'But to take a poet and a poem that should be held up across partisan lines and demonize the piece itself and the creator of it, I mean understand from reporting this week it was one parent that complained, but I have not seen one Republican defend Amanda Gorman or her poem.'”
“What strikes me as so devastating is that it's Amanda and her poem. But she's the tip of a much larger iceberg. We know that there have been indiscriminate attacks on LGBTQ writers, on non-white writers, and that Amanda Gorman’s not immune to this type of attack," Abrams replied.
Gorman's poetry was moved to a middle-school library.
That didn't stop countless media outlets from claiming it had been "banned." | @brittybernstein https://t.co/7lS8tJrFLg
— National Review (@NRO) May 26, 2023
"Minutes from a meeting of the review committee show the panel found the vocabulary used in Gorman’s poem was 'determined to be of value for middle school students,'" the National Review reported.
"A spokesperson for Miami-Dade County Public Schools told CNN that 'no literature (books or poem) has been banned or removed,'" it added.
Despite the facts, Abrams and MSNBC continued to promote the story, as have some other outlets.
The pushback appears to focus more on criticisms of Florida's push to remove sexually-explicit material from school libraries, a different matter that many progressives have claimed is somehow discrimination.
The latest fake news account follows several smears against Florida and the policies of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that seem to be growing now that he has entered the 2024 presidential race.
The facts, however, are far different, with the state's conservatives seeking to protect children from explicit content.
