Did Melania Plaguerize Michelle Obama Again?

Several websites pushed out a fresh accusation of plagiarism confronting First Lady Melania Trump—and once once again, the declared source for the supposedly ill-gotten words is former Start Lady Michelle Obama.

On Saturday, August 12, equally violence escalated in Charlottesville, Virginia, Mrs. Trump took to Twitter with this message: "Our country encourages freedom of speech, merely let's communicate due west/o detest in our hearts. No good comes from violence. #Charlottesville"

One-time on Sunday, a meme appeared on Twitter, Facebook, and various other websites, that juxtaposed the words of the commencement lady'south tweet and her pic with very like words purportedly from Michelle Obama: "Our nation encourages liberty of speech, but let's communicate without detest in our hearts. No good comes of that." The old first lady'due south picture besides appears in the meme (shown below), equally well as the date when Mrs. Obama allegedly made the remarks, April 16, 2016.

However, there is no evidence that Michelle Obama ever uttered those words or anything remotely close to them. The Obama White Business firm archives do not indicate any speech or remarks by Michelle Obama on the appointment in question, nor does a broader search turn upward whatever such remarks by the quondam first lady at any indicate during her married man'due south presidency. A review of contemporaneous news reports similarly comes upward empty also.

The photo of Mrs. Obama used in the meme comes from an October 13, 2016 appearance at a Hillary for America campaign event in Manchester, New Hampshire. During her remarks, Mrs. Obama excoriated then-candidate Trump for vulgar remarks in a 2005 Admission Hollywood taping. Just again, the transcript of the spoken communication contains goose egg close to the words in the meme.

Despite the complete lack of show, within days the meme and related stories were shared on Twitter and Facebook thousands of times. Rickey Smiley, a comedian and TV-radio personality, featured the imitation story under the headline "Showtime Lady Forger: Did Melania Trump Simply Plagiarize Michelle Obama Again!?" Smiley's Facebook fan page and blog linked to a Raw Story piece which in plough used an International Concern Times story as its source. Other sites responsible for broad distribution of the false meme include an unofficial Beak Maher fan folio and AlterNet News.

The meme plays off a 2016 incident in which the spoken language Melania Trump delivered at the Republican National Convention drew heavily on remarks made by Michelle Obama in 2008. A Trump campaign aide who wrote the oral communication for Mrs. Trump took responsibleness for the uncredited words, saying that she took notes while Mrs. Trump read passages from Mrs. Obama's earlier speech. Those notes were incorporated into the final typhoon of the oral communication without attribution. The aide offered to resign, but Donald Trump declined her offering.

The new accusation of plagiarism, while drawn from the 2016 incident, seems to have been largely shared with the understanding that it was likely a hoax. In Rickey Smiley'south posting for case, the article ends with "Before you lot pull out your pitchfork though, know that none of this has been confirmed. No one has proven that Michelle really said or tweeted those words before—for all nosotros know, it could merely be a meme gone out of control."

Even the original International Business Times story noted that information technology was an "unproven claim whether Melania stole Obama'due south words" and "[w]hile the possibility of plagiarism has not been ruled out in the latest instance, reports said the viral meme was well-nigh probable a spoof."

Any doubts existed, thousands of social media users enthusiastic spread the story based on the sensational headlines. While mainstream news outlets take largely avoided the story for now, Yahoo! News picked up and reprinted the International Business concern Times version with the headline "Melania Trump Accused Of Copying Michelle Obama Again." But while the IBT story headline included the phrase "Perchance Wrongly This Fourth dimension," that caveat was missing in the Yahoo! Headline.

While the original source of the meme remains a mystery, the spread of false stories such every bit this is annihilation but.

If yous accept questions most this fact cheque, or would like to submit a asking for another fact check, email The Weekly Standard at factcheck@weeklystandard.com .

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Source: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/fact-check-did-melania-trump-plagiarize-michelle-obama-on-twitter

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