Even for PolitiFact this is a bit much…
In another year of lament about the lack of truth in politics, the attacks against Parkland’s students stand out because of their sheer vitriol. Together, the lies against the Parkland students in the wake of unspeakable tragedy were the most significant falsehoods of 2018. We name them PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year.
Outright lies morphed into suspicions about the students’ connections. Also on Feb. 20, Donald Trump Jr. liked a tweet by a conservative TV show host Graham Ledger that linked to a story by the Gateway Pundit website stating that David Hogg was “coached on anti-Trump lines.”
Russian-linked Twitter accounts got into the action, too, promoting messages that attacked Parkland students, according to analysts at the German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy project. (The bipartisan group tracks the efforts of autocratic countries to undermine democracies.)
PolitiFact has debunked multiple false claims of shooters having particular political ideologies. PolitiFact, PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year: Online Smear Machine Tries to Take Down Parkland Students