Daily Mail Pins 'Racist and Proud' Anti-Zimmerman Hoax on Associated Press

The saga of the “Racist and Proud” anti-Zimmerman hoax has resulted in a retraction from both the New York Daily News and the photo was eventually pulled from the Daily Mail.

The hoax resulted in an Austin, Texas woman having her life damaged, a Daily News journalist appearing to have been dishonest, and the Daily Mail looking like it simply regurgitated the hoax without doing due diligence. 

The issues started with a New Black Panther march in support of the Justice-for-Trayvon effort. A woman arrived with a sign that read “Racist and Proud.” The Houston Chronicle reported the incident and their reporting was not specific as to the sign-bearers intentions. The New York Daily News’s Philip Caulfield then reported that the sign-bearer was a “Zimmerman supporter.” The Daily Mail then ran with a story asserting the sign-bearer to be a “Zimmerman supporter.” The hoax was even repeated on FOX News’s Hannity by Democratic strategist Tara Dowdell (albeit Dowdell repeated the fallacy with no way of knowing it was false).

I was present at the protest and provided Breitbart News with exclusive video proving the sign-bearer was not only on the New Black Panther side, but she was also very open and honest about that fact. Gateway Pundit was able to show the woman was a very dedicated left-of-center activist, though they identified her as “a leftist plant” (this assumption was likely due to the historical prevalence of left-of-center activists dressing up like Tea Party members with racist signs to smear the group in media).

Once Breitbart released the video proof that the woman, Renee Vaughan, was not a Zimmerman supporter, the Daily News immediately retracted.

The Daily Mail, however, took almost a full three days to remove the article from their website and never posted a correction.

At first, the Daily News’s Phillip Caulfield looked like the bad guy in the ordeal. However, the photo itself was attributed to Associated Press. In fact, Gateway Pundit reports that the Daily Mail placed the blame squarely on the AP.

The AP photographer who took the photo is named James Nielsen, though we do not know who wrote the deceptive caption.

The woman was likely accompanying New Black Panthers because she was standing next to and present with a black male wearing a hoodie. (Hoodies were being worn at the event as a sign of solidarity with Trayvon Martin.)