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Quebec is mourning the death of six Muslims following a shooting at Quebec City mosque.
The man charged in connection with the terrorist attack is French Canadian student Alexandre Bissonnette, who was a supporter for Donald Trump and far-right nationalist politician Marine Le Pen.
The 27-year-old man is facing charges of six counts of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder with a restricted weapon.
Before his identity was discovered, some news outlets jumped the gun somewhat.
Fox News reported that the suspect was of Moroccan origin:
However, when Bissonnette’s identity became known, people quickly criticised the article for reporting a false suspect:
You're just gonna leave that this alt- right, woman-hating, French-Canadian, white kid was 'Moroccan' on your Twitt… https://t.co/AiI67pkNuF— Δx Δp ≥ ℏ/2 (@Δx Δp ≥ ℏ/2) 1485832402
Fox News issued the following update to the story:
@FoxNews Mosque attack suspect formally charged w/ six counts of murder; Second man cleared, identified as a witness https://t.co/oRzxGHEXDm— Fox News (@Fox News) 1485817948
Since when is the witness to an attack, the ‘second man’?
@FoxNews Yes, the man you accused of the attack was actually a witness. Fancy retraction.— “in a disappointment for the left” (@“in a disappointment for the left”) 1485821995
THE SECOND MAN THAT WAS CLEARED IS THE MOROCCAN YOU ORIGINALLY BLAMED @FoxNews CLEAN UP YOUR MESS— jordan (she/her) (@jordan (she/her)) 1485821884
The news organisation was also criticised for failing to remove the original tweet, which was factually wrong:
@FoxNews Surely you should delete the original tweet. As your pal, Donald, would say... this is "FAKE NEWS".— Brian (@Brian) 1485823784
There are calls to retract the article altogether:
@FoxNews where's the retraction for your false reporting? Imagine what you would say if @nytimes had reported as you did. #fakenews— DanaG (@DanaG) 1485824736
Donald Trump is a vocal critic of 'fake news' and consistently takes any opportunity to accuse major news outlets of false or inaccurate reporting.
Did the president tweet about Fox News' inaccuracy?
No.
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