It was a quick turnaround. We protested a false story and it was immediately corrected.
Maggie Baska was named a reporter for PinkNews, a gay media outlet from the UK, on January 27, 2021. She no sooner was hired when she proved to be a total incompetent, falsely accusing a Catholic school of something it never did.
On that same day, Fox23News reported that an eight-year-old girl had been expelled after she told another student that she had a crush on her. The story was accurate. The school was Rejoice Christian School in Owasso, Oklahoma. Two days later CNN ran a column on this news story. It, too, was accurate.
On February 1, an article on this story was posted on the website of pinknews.co.uk by Maggie Baska. The headline read, “Eight-Year-Old Expelled from Catholic School after Telling Another Girl She Had a Crush on Her.”
False. Rejoice Christian School is not a Catholic school. The error was not limited to the headline: the story said the girl “was expelled from her Catholic school….” This bogus account was picked up by other media sites.
Even a secular reporter should know that Catholic schools typically identify as Catholic, not “Christian.” That should have been the first clue that something was wrong.
PinkNews labels itself “the brand for the global LGBT+ community and the next generation. Our mission is to inform, inspire change and empower people to be themselves.” How about just getting news stories right?
We asked PinkNews to correct its story. It did. Thanks to those who emailed the UK media outlet.
