Clearing up confusion over a mysterious event

This is an attempt to explain the confusion over the two post-election events on November 13.

Immediately after the election, Daniel Doubet of Keystone Progress called an event that was about tolerance and healing. Called Vigil for Our Democracy, it was to be held in Perry Square at 2pm. An event page was set up, and a media advisory was sent to local news outlets. The event turned out well, with a hundred people showing up in a peaceful statement against hatred and intolerance. 

There was however, some confusion. Someone had called an anti-Trump rally for the same day.

The day before Daniel's event, the Erie Times-News published an article about an anti-Trump rally that was to be held at Dobbins Landing at 5pm on the same day. The event had been announced on Craigslist, and provided no information as to who was calling for the event, or who to contact for more information. This second event had no connection with Daniel Doubet’s event. 

To add to the confusion, a reporter posted on Facebook that they had received several calls telling them that Daniel’s 2pm event was cancelled, and everyone should go to the mysterious anti-Trump event. They wanted to confirm if anyone knew that to be the case.

Some were also suspicious of who might have been behind the mystery event, given the fact that Trump supporters had punked, hoaxed, trolled and misinformed during the campaign, the suspicion wasn’t that far-fetched.

As it turns out, the anti-Trump event was apparently called by a fellow who was sincere in his intentions to join the national outrage over a Trump presidency.  

As for who made multiple calls to news outlets providing misinformation about the Daniel’s event being cancelled… that remains a suspicious mystery.

The original 2pm event went very well. About a hundred people showed up, and news coverage was good. Fortunately, disruption from Trump supporters seems to have been limited to a couple of men who thought this was the Trump event; they were pretty low-key though.

About 50 people did show up at Dobbins Landing for the anti-Trump rally, and it reportedly it was fine, and took place without incident. Some of the attendees went out afterwards for foods, drinks and fellowship with those whose hearts were the same.

A couple suggestions to organizers and reporters going forward.

First of all, if you call an event, send a media advisory to local news media with your contact information. Here's a basic media advisory template.

For reporters, please, please be cautious with this handling this sort of event in the future. At the very least, in this case, you might have contacted Daniel and asked what he knew about it…any of it.  If contacted by anonymous sources about this sort of thing please exercise some judgment about the possibility that you might be being used to spread misinformation. Calling on the Facebook peanut gallery for confirming information in this case risked getting information from people who . Reporters need to act more responsibly about the information they share. If you are asking the peanut gallery for help, be careful that you are not spreading misinformation in your question. That probably applies to any contentious issue.

Daniel wrote an excellent piece about the vigil. Read it here.

Photo/video gallery of Vigil for Our Democracy