On Sunday, Gov. Greg Abbott delighted in sharing with his Twitter followers the — satirical — news that country music star Garth Brooks had been booed off stage by a conservative audience at an annual country music jamboree in a Texas town.
Abbott cited the article that falsely claimed the renowned country artist was forced to leave the stage "in shame under two minutes later" after receiving a chorus of boos from "patriots."
"Go woke. Go broke," Abbott tweeted in response to the fake article Sunday. "Garth called his conservative fans 'assholes.' Good job Texas."
The issue: None of it was true.
The town of Hambriston in Texas, the 123rd annual Texas Country Jamboree and the comments attributed to Brooks all were made up in an article by the Dunning-Kruger Times, a parody content site that says it produces satire and "tomfoolery."
Brooks never made the comments attributed to him in the article's fourth paragraph, and the event never took place in the fictional town.
Abbott's tweet, however, was his attempt to jump into one of the latest culture wars sparked after Bud Light chose TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender woman, as a brand ambassador.
More:Dylan Mulvaney breaks silence on Bud Light backlash: 'Dehumanization has never fixed anything'
The iconic beer brand, owned by worldwide beer conglomerate Anheuser-Busch, has faced continued backlash and calls for boycotts after its advertising campaign began running in April. Celebrity bar owners John Rich and Kid Rockpulled Bud Light from their Nashville, Tenn., businesses.
Brooks, who is opening a new bar called the Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky Tonk in Nashville, took a different approach earlier this month, saying he plans to serve all beer brands and wants his patrons to feel comfortable.
"I want it to be a place you feel safe in. I want it to be a place where you feel like there are manners and people like one another," he said during a panel this month. "And, yes, we're going to serve every brand of beer. We just are. It’s not our decision to make. Our thing is this: If you (are let) into this house, love one another."
Brooks could not be reached for comment Monday.
Abbott deleted the tweet from his account shortly after he published it Sunday. Abbott's office did not respond to an American-Statesman request for comment.
It remains unclear whether Abbott himself wrote and published the tweet or how often he directly uses the social media site to communicate directly with his constituents.
Although both of Abbott's Twitter accounts, one personal and one for his office, are constantly pushing the governor's effort to institute a school choice program meant to help fund private school tuition with public money and using the social media site as an avenue to push back in an ongoing property tax relief debate with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick that has become increasingly waged on Twitterin the past several months.
On Saturday, Abbott also tweeted a link to an article from Metro Weekly, one of the country's oldest and most prominent LGBTQ+ magazines, as he celebrated a ban on public drag performances.
Abbott tweeting a political satire piece serves as a reminder of the need for due diligence when collecting and sharing information online, said Gina Masullo, an associate professor at the University of Texas School of Journalism and associate director of the Center for Media Engagement in the Moody College of Communication.
"I don't know the governor's state of mind. I'm assuming he didn't know it was fake when he retweeted it. At least I would hope," Masullo said. "I think the risk of retweeting something that is not true is high for all of us, especially with satire sites, because sometimes people don't realize they're satire sites."
To help minimize the risk in spreading misinformation, or well-intentioned satire, a good practice is to look across multiple media outlets to see if they are all reporting the story, and refer to a news organization that you already trust and have a relationship with, Masullo said.
Additionally, if you think something about the information might seem off, Masullo recommends double-checking the content.
"If anything looks too good to be true, or just too kind of hilarious to be true, you should make sure you can find it multiple places before you retweet it," Masullo said.
A disclaimer on the Dunning-Kruger Times website states that "everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined."
Flagg Eagleton, the pseudonym of the author of the article, said in a tweet Monday that he will try to capitalize on the newfound attention from his latest article and keep being funny.
"Wow. With all this new attention I'll have to try extra hard to be funny. I'm coming for you next, DeSantis," Eagleton said, referering to Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor and GOP presidential candidate.
https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2023/06/26/texas-governor-greg-abbott-garth-brooks-tweet-fake-news-country-music-phony-town-boo/70357208007/
