Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) slammed Axios on Twitter over the weekend after the news platform used misleading titles related to the Supreme Court’s decision not to force business owners to make products that violate their religious beliefs.
As previously reported by the DC Enquirer, the Supreme Court made the landmark decision on Friday in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis that the state of Colorado could not force the graphic design website to make a site for gay marriage. The decision was reached in a 6-3 ruling with all the conservative judges on one side and all the liberal judges on the other.
Axios reported on this ruling, using the breaking headline that the “Supreme Court rules businesses can refuse service to LGBTQ+ customers.” The title is inherently misleading, as the ruling isn’t that businesses can refuse service to LGBTQ members as that would violate the law, but instead, a business can refuse to make a product that is LGBTQ themed or related.
https://twitter.com/axios/status/1674782002040676359
On Saturday night, Ted Cruz came out swinging, disappointed with the coverage that Axios provided. In a thread, he began by writing, “If @axios were a first-year law student, this answer would earn an F. It’s either ignorance or dishonesty. I suspect the latter, but if it’s the former, a real journalistic outfit with integrity would issue a correction.”
https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1675279466140954626
“Assuming whoever wrote the headline didn’t bother to read the opinion, what the Court DID hold is that the First Amendment prohibits CO from compelling a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which she disagrees,” the Texas senator continued.
“So, for example, the government could not force @axios to tweet ‘All journalists are morons’ or ‘Donald Trump is awesome’ (two sentiments with which Axios presumably disagrees),” he concluded.
https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1675280517128757251
What Cruz spoke on highlights a sinister trend of click-baiting with misinformation in the media world. It’s especially dangerous in a time where so many people share articles through social media without actually reading the content, causing their only exposure to the subject to be the headline.
Even the article itself is misleading, with the opening speaking on how the Supreme Court is going back on rights for LGBTQ members even though this case did nothing to limit LGBTQ rights. Instead, this case entirely expanded the limits of free speech and religious freedom, making it so that no individual or business can be forced to say things that disagree with their beliefs, religious or not.
As of now, both the Axios tweet and article remain up with no correction to the headline.
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