Jennifer Bendery: NC State Rep Lindsey Prather says disinformation is affecting recovery efforts

[Dennis Donovan]

Jennifer Bendery
I talked to North Carolina state Rep. Lindsey Prather, who represents part of Buncombe County -- a devastated region where Asheville is based -- about whether misinformation is affecting the disaster recovery efforts there.

(Short answer: it is.)

11:54 AM · Oct 5, 2024

HuffPost - North Carolina Republican Pleads To End Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories About Helene Disaster Recovery

State Sen. Kevin Corbin calls out “conspiracy theory junk” about unburied bodies and FEMA stealing money.

By Arthur Delaney and Jennifer Bendery
Oct 4, 2024, 12:00 PM EDT
Updated a day ago

A Republican senator in the North Carolina legislature has issued a public plea for people to stop spreading conspiracy theories about the disaster recovery efforts in areas ravaged by flooding from Hurricane Helene.

In a Thursday afternoon Facebook post, state Sen. Kevin Corbin, who represents the state’s westernmost area, asked his followers for a favor: “Will you all help STOP this conspiracy theory junk that is floating all over Facebook and the internet about the floods in WNC.”

Corbin listed several examples: “FEMA is stealing money from donations, body bags ordered but government has denied, bodies not being buried, government is controlling the weather from Antarctica, government is trying to get lithium from WNC, stacks of bodies left at hospitals, and on and on and on.”

Since making landfall last week and churning inland, the storm has killed more than 200 people across six states, with more than 70 of those deaths in Asheville and western North Carolina.

/snip

If this disinformation effort is to affect politics, it should be labeled as such by the media (not "misinformation" which is something different). It can't be allowed!

[BOSSHOG]

1. Trump supporters throw a wrench into the operation as ordered

Then blame the Dems. It’s their strategy for WINNING. It’s part of trumps way to stay out of jail. Actually it’s murder in the first degree. Acts of terrorism. Totally reprehensible. Totally a production of the party of responsibility.

[Lovie777]

2. Further proof that the party of shithole never cared about the wellbeing............

of the American citizens nor their property because shithole's comrades are greedy as hell.

[Sequoia]

3. Outrageous beliefs

On the FB pages for Western NC there were hundreds of these horrid rumors. A fake doctor claiming people were covering up bodies, Chimney Park being plowed under, tires of first responders being slashed, government take over, all the FEMA money went to immigrants. I grew up there and it's sickening how these complainers and liars keep it up until the whole country thinks everyone in WNC are a bunch of trump supporting kooks.