Media falls for ‘fake news’ story blaming Trump ban for Iraqi mother’s death

http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/02/01/media-falls-for-fake-news-story-blaming-trump-ban-for-iraqi-mothers-death/

Various media outlets issued retractions and apologies Wednesday after spreading a story of a man claiming his mother died because of President Trump’s travel ban. The original story ran at a Fox News affiliate in Detroiton Tuesday.

A local business owner who flew to Iraq to bring his mother back home to the US for medical treatment said she was blocked from returning home under President Trump’s ban on immigration and travel from seven predominately Muslim nations. He said that while she was waiting for approval to fly home, she died from an illness. FOX 2 has learned that claim was not true.

Mike Hager fled Iraq with his family during the Gulf War, returned during the Iraq war and worked alongside United States Marines and Army forces. He now owns a business in Metro Detroit and said his mom would still be alive today if President Donald Trump had not instituted his travel ban on Muslim countries.

They quoted the man extensively but apparently didn’t check to see when the mother actually died. “I really believe this in my heart: if they would have let us in, my mom – she would have made it and she would have been sitting right here next to me,” Hager told Fox News. “She’s gone because of him,” he added, a dramatic quote that was widely shared.Buzzfeed ran the story under a headline affirming that the man claimed his mother died.
This man says his mom died after being denied entry into the US over Trump’s travel ban

https://t.co/RASUyyoJXT pic.twitter.com/BMBrKBlHPb— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) February 1, 2017
 
"She's gone because of him."This man says his mom died after being denied US entry over Trump’s travel ban https://t.co/tRvJvld5sS— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) February 1, 2017
 A retraction was later added to the article when the family’s Imam revealed that she had died prior to the ban.
Imam Husham Al-Husainy, of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center in Dearborn, told WJBK the man’s mother actually died five days before the ban was put in place.

The left-wing advocacy organization ThinkProgress was also caught spreading the “fake news.”
Death of a Michigan man’s mother illustrates tragic consequences of Trump’s Muslim banhttps://t.co/7GmeAIIAPY pic.twitter.com/5nh6cOpeBo— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) February 1, 2017

 Their LGBT editor later admitted the error. “Unfortunately, one of the stories we highlighted earlier appears to have been fabricated. We’ve updated accordingly,” he tweeted.
Unfortunately, one of the stories we highlighted earlier appears to have been fabricated. We've updated accordingly: https://t.co/biZInrvxpc— Zack Ford (@ZackFord) February 1, 2017

 Twitchy highlightedsome of the other media organizations and figures that spread the false story, including the New York Daily News and CNN contributor Ron Fournier.

The local report on the story:Detroit family caught in Iraq travel ban, says mom died waiting to come homehttp://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/232856168-story

UPDATE
DETROIT (WJBK) - The leader of a mosque in Dearborn has confirmed to FOX 2 that a man who claimed his mother died in Iraq after being barred from returning to the United States under a ban instituted by President Trump this weekend, lied to FOX 2 about when her death occurred. CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS