It was only a matter of time. The fires in Southern California have to be blamed on someone and who better than immigrants and Latinos. It may have been meant as a spoof originally, but the website (now offline) CNN HeadLIEne News ran a story saying that a “radical Hispanic organization had taken responsibility for the fires that raged through southern California this week”. Ha ha real funny no?

Except no one let right wingers in on the joke who took the story and ran with it, claiming it as fact.

The author of the site “Americanandproud” declared, “I am going to wait until all the facts are in, but it appears the first major shot of the next Mexican/American war has just been fired.”

See no se, say I don’t have a sense of humor, but knowing the anti-immigrant sentiment in the country, was it such a smart, funny idea? Was it to see how many right wingers would pick the story up?

Via / The Huffington Post and AlterNet