AP, Cleveland.com Promoted a Tuesday Anti-Trump Rally Which Won't Happen Until Thursday

July 19th, 2016 11:56 PM

It's a good thing all those layers of fact-checkers and proofreaders are out there in the establishment press making sure that they don't misinform their readers about the dates and times of impending events.

Oh, wait a minute. Both Cleveland.com, the home website of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and the Associated Press promoted a "Stand Together Against Trump" rally as if it would take place Tuesday afternoon. The problem is that the protest isn't until Thursday. Oops. I guess they were just overanxious.

Searching desperately for something which might resemble an acceptable excuse for the poor dears at the AP and Cleveland.com — perhaps they got confused by the dual listing found at eventbrite.com:

ClevelandSTATschedule0716

This gives the two outlets a bit of an excuse for not naming Thursday, but none for saying it would be on Tuesday.

The first event is designed to give those who wish to provide pvernight accommodations for protesters. The second event is the protest itself. But that's listed as being on Wednesday, even though the linked page detailing the protest says it's on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. — well, it does and it doesn't:

STATconflictingProtestDates

Really now, the WHEN says Wednesday at noon, while the body of the event description, which is the item that is correct (but you have to scroll to the bottom of STAT's home page to verify that), says Thursday at 1:30 p.m.

Geez, can anybody here play this game?

There is something mildly newsworthy here, namely the idea that there would be a need for out-of-towner accommodations for a group which portrays itself as local in nature:

Stand Together Against Trump was started by young professionals in Northeast Ohio when Trump’s nomination in Cleveland this July became inevitable. We reject absolutely a candidacy based around messages of fear, racism, and misogyny. We are open to membership from any region, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity. We represent a variety of political opinions who have come together because of our strong opposition to Donald Trump as a candidate for President of the United States.

The fact that STAT is involved in providing overnight accommodations would seem to indicate that they're really a front group for a national effort to protest against Donald Trump. Thanks for letting us know, guys.

Media representatives came to the site of the rally today (HT Gateway Pundit) and found nothing:

ClevelandProtestNoncrowd071916

As I said, it's a good thing these guys could rely on the Plain Dealer's and AP's information. (That's sarcasm, folks.)

According to Gateway Pundit, the permit for STAT's Thursday march estimates that 5,000 protesters will participate. They may succeed, but it's very safe to say, contrary to the group's pretense, that the protest will not consist entirely of Northeastern Ohioans. Convention watchers should be alert for media attempts to portray this march as purely local, because it's clearly not.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.