Alerts & Actions
Fake News, Fake Flyer from Montana Daily Gazette
The extremist blog the Montana Daily Gazette has made a business out of publishing misinformation, harmful stereotypes, and hostile attacks. Given their typical posts, it’s not surprising that they fell for a fake story about immigrants.
A story they published early this month uses a badly Photoshopped flyer featuring an altered MHRN logo along with a fabricated story about a Montanan receiving the flyer in Tijuana. (See image below so you don’t have to visit their blog.)
Nothing about this story passes even the most basic fact checking. It is deeply troubling that Gazette bloggers not only believed this story but tried to pass it off as credible material to their readers.
MHRN firmly believes that migration is a human right, and people who want to come to the United States for safety and opportunity should be able to do so. We are always looking for ways to make sure that Latinx people feel accepted and welcome in Montana.
We respect the difficult journey people make to arrive in this country. MHRN would only communicate with Spanish-speaking people using material created by someone who speaks the language. Dr. Angelina González-Aller, Executive Director of MHRN and a native Spanish speaker, translated the flyer.
Come to the beautiful Bozeman, Momtana [sic]
JOBS ACCOMMODATIONS NEW LIFE LIVE WITH ALL THE BENEFITS OF CITIZENSHIP
Beginning today your new life. Bozeman needs your help to make that our community great again.
YOU DO NOT NEED PAPERS! JUST ARRIVED.
“I would never allow such an inaccurate and poorly translated document to be distributed by the Montana Human Rights Network,” says Dr. González-Aller.
This piece is so obviously fake that it might seem funny, but MHRN takes these kinds of posts very seriously. It is terrible to see Montanans use their platform to hook readers with racist stereotypes and then reinforce them with with fabricated stories that advance xenophobic rhetoric and racism.
Our years of experience combatting extremism in Montana has taught us that the real problems in Montana are right-wing extremism, which we see manifested in white nationalism, antisemitism, homophobia, bigotry, and other dangerous ideologies. The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have issued warnings about this rising danger, and it is alarming to see blogs like Montana Daily Gazette normalize it.
Help us defeat extremism in Montana. You can click here to make a donation to MHRN, or you can give to one of these amazing organizations that supports immigrants and Latinx Montanans.