Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Political Facebook Post Stirs Up Trouble

© Luke T. Bush 2020


PLATTSBURGH CITY, NY – 10/27/20

Plattsburgh City Democrats committee spokesperson Rachelle Armstrong alerted me via an email press release about a fake Facebook post endorsed by mayoral candidate Scott Beebie. In the post Scott thanked “Plattsburgh City Democrats 2.0” for looking beyond the party line and voting for him instead. The controversial post has been deleted.

In the email press release Rachelle stated: "This is a page from the Trump playbook being used in our own backyard.” She added “...the [Democrats 2.0] group provides no transparency as to who manages it nor is it an official committee recognized by the NYS Board of Elections or Clinton County Democratic Committees.” She explained the city Democratic party was behind mayoral candidate Chris Rosenquest who won the Democratic primary.

In a telephone interview Rachelle explained that in her criticism of Scott Beebie didn't blame him for the creation of the page. The problem, she said, is he saw the post and shared it on his own page without checking to see if the post was real. By not being skeptical misleading misinformation has been shared.

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