Stephen King Spreads Year-Old Lie About Gov. Ron DeSantis
Stephen King is a brilliant author. He's also not very good on Twitter.
Tuesday, King tweeted that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill requiring Florida students and professors to register their political views.
"DeSantis signs bill requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with state. I. Can't. Even," King tweeted.
Over 16,000 users shared this tweet and 100,000 more commented. It caused quite the stir. The tweet is also inaccurate.
The fact-checkers -- whom King supports -- debunked this very statement over one year ago:
PolitiFact explains:
What caused King to tweet this lie one year later? It appears King got his info from shady Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson, who just a day before, shared an article from June 2021 spreading that exact myth.
Wilson had his Junes mixed up and didn't bother to see if the info he promoted was correct:
King has nearly 7 million Twitter followers, meaning the disinformation he shares spreads quickly. If Twitter were concerned with debunking false information, it would identify a Tweet like this naughty.
But Twitter isn't concerned with the facts. Nor are the self-proclaimed purveyors of the truth -- also known as the blue check brigade -- who have not addressed King's lie.
Don't expect King to correct his fake news Tweet, either. Novel writers are among the wokest of public figures. So, to them, the truth is only optional. And in this case, the truth is rather inconvenient.
King's approach to his novels is the inverse of how he forms his political commentary online. As a novelist, King is unordinary and tidiest. He's one of one.
As a tweeter, King is predictable and reckless with his thoughts. He's a follower, begging to fit in.
Stick to haunted hotels and disturbing clowns. Seriously, the country needs more great content like that.
I still love your work, Stephen. Even if you lie on Twitter.