The federal government’s initiative to expose fake news demonstrated its own fallibility on Wednesday.
A well-known journalist has rejected the federal government’s claim that he disseminated false information about a supposed shootout at Cancún airport that didn’t actually occur.
Passengers at the Cancún airport rushed out of a terminal building Monday after hearing noises that sounded like gunshots. However, the bangs were in fact caused by three advertising displays falling over, the airport later confirmed in a statement.
Elizabeth García Vilchis, a government spokesperson who presents the “Who’s who in the lies of the week” segment at President López Obrador’s morning press conferences, mocked media outlets and “experienced journalists” such as Joaquín López-Dóriga, Hannia Novell, Azucena Uresti and Carlos Loret de Mola for reporting on the supposed shootout without verifying that it actually occurred.
“Without looking for official versions, without checking, without the event being confirmed or refuted, they published tweets, contributing … to collective hysteria,” she said Wednesday.
“… Pointing out this situation is not stigmatizing or attacking journalists or media outlets, it’s simply drawing attention to a fact of public interest. We also ask ourselves, when will media outlets, journalists, opinion-makers and influencers assume a social responsibility to citizens?”
— Carlos Loret de Mola (@CarlosLoret) March 30, 2022
Loret de Mola, a broadcast and print journalist who is a prominent critic of López Obrador and the federal government, published a tweet Wednesday morning to refute García’s claim.
Beneath a thinking face emoji, Loret reposted tweets he had written the day of the supposed shootout, including one that said there was no evidence of such an event at Cancún airport.
The journalist in fact interviewed Quintana Roo Attorney General Óscar Montes de Oca on his radio program on Monday and tweeted his remarks vis-à-vis the events at the airport.
“’We’ve had communication with authorities and they concur that there was no explosion or injured people at Cancún airport’: Óscar Montes de Oca, Quintana Roo Attorney General,” one tweet said.
“’The fall of a 50-kilo advertisement … may have caused confusion,’” Loret wrote in another post, quoting Montes de Oca.
With reports from El Universal
