Stop citing Newslo or Politicops or Ifyouonlynews, please

They are not trustworthy news sites. They throw in satire and outright lies mingled with straight news, so that it becomes difficult to sort them out.

Here’s the latest that is suddenly popping up all over my social media. Louie Gohmert is a goddamn dumbass who says some of the most godawful stupid crap, and these “news” sites are highlighting a recent speech complaining about a bill that would support women in STEM careers. They “quote” him from his speech:

Gohmert also added that “women were created for one thing and one thing alone,” as well as that “we are insulting the Lord by allowing women to act like men.” “Women are beautiful creatures, no doubt about that. We marry them, we look after them, we provide for them and we love them, but that does not mean they are the same as us. It is the job of a woman to stay at home, to maintain the household, to bear children and look after them after they’re born. Nowhere in the scriptures does it say that women should be chasing after fancy titles and knowledge. The only knowledge they need is the one we men allow them to have.”

Outrageous, yes? Incredibly idiotic? It sure is. Only one problem: he didn’t say any of that. Really, I’d love to catch this fool saying something so blatantly inane, and so would a lot of other people…which Newslo relies on, so they made up the quote. Some of the cites quoting Newslo even include a video of the talk, which they apparently never bothered to listen to, because those words aren’t in there.

He says a lot of other stupid crap in there: he somehow thinks Martin Luther King Jr. would oppose the bill, because it discriminates on the basis of something other than the content of the character. He seems to think that racism is over. He is very concerned that supporting women in science would harm boys. And he riffs ridiculously on the idea that it sure is good that Marie Curie was not supported by this bill, because it promotes entrepreneurship, and apparently government support for that would somehow deprive women of the ability to do basic research. Gohmert is one of the lowest wattage bulbs in congress and needs to be shuffled away somewhere where he can’t do any more harm, but he did not say what was quoted.

There are lots of these lying “news” sites out there that rely on making shit up to stir up interest, because apparently the real idiocy going on in the Republican party is just not enough. Shut them off.

And jebus, if you’re going to quote something from a video, watch the video first to see if it’s actually in there.