and later in an interview with Howard Kurtz of Fox News, saying it was overblown because “I misspoke one word.” (By that, she meant, apparently,
that she should have said “Bowling Green terrorists” rather than “Bowling Green massacre.”)
And Ms. Conway was right when she wrote that “honest mistakes abound.”
A few days before that, WJBK-TV of Detroit walked back a report about a woman who died in
Iraq supposedly after Mr. Trump’s new policy blocked her entry to the United States.
But there’s a good chance you know that by now: that the supposed terrorist attack in Bowling Green, Ky.,
that Ms. Conway, a top presidential adviser, invoked on MSNBC last week to justify President Trump’s contentious travel ban never happened.
Then there are the regular Trump Tweets calling CNN or The Times “fake news.”
The Bowling Green episode made such a splash because it played directly into concerns
that the Trump administration would use untrue assertions to rally support for its agenda while denigrating as “dishonest” all the valid reporting pointing out the falsehoods.
Eventually, the Bowling Green memes led to mock street memorials with signs like “Never Remember.” They had
made it IRL, or “In Real Life,” which, the new administration is learning, has a way of sneaking up on you.