A Fox affiliate, Fox 17 in Nashville has caused controversy on Twitter by posting a news tweet about a suspect armed with a knife in Burbank, California. The only problem is that they posted it along with a photo of the popular Infowars host Alex Jones, leading to speculation that Alex Jones was in a high-speed chase with police.
At the time of writing, the tweet has been left up for over 17 hours and has yet to be removed. No link was provided with the post to provide context.
The tweet is likely in reference to a news story about a pursuit in Burbank that ended with the suspect being taken to hospital after a standoff with police.
From the LA Times:
The pursuit began about 7:30 p.m. and turned into a standoff near the Buena Vista Street exit, shutting down both sides of the freeway for hours as police worked to calm and negotiate with the driver, who had barricaded himself in the car with a knife, said Officer Rosario Cervantes with the Los Angeles Police Department.
Just after midnight, the CHP confirmed the southbound lanes of the freeway had reopened.
At some point during the standoff, the man stumbled out of his car and was hit by what appeared to be rubber bullets. He lay on the ground, squirming and moving erratically, before a group of officers surrounded him and pinned him down.
Infowars host Alex Jones was obviously not the suspect that was referenced in the news story – being in a different state at the time. However, it caused people to start speculating about how the tweet came to be posted and remain live all day without being removed.
The Twitter account that posted the tweet has been active all day, posting several other tweets and retweeting other stories – fueling speculation that it’s unlikely the tweet has gone unnoticed by the Fox 17 channel staff.
Some speculated that the tweet was simply posted by accident. Others suggested that it posted on purpose by a rogue employee trying to smear Alex Jones at a time when he’s one of the most censored people in online, with Infowars having been banned from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and even Pinterest.
Having been banned on Twitter, Alex Jones was unavailable to defend himself to the accusation.
