Billings Gazette “Ratioed” Over Fake News Headline on FL Bill

Apparently when they talk about "getting ratio'ed" on social media, this is what they mean.

The Billings Gazette went to print with a fake news headline about a small group of Skyview High School students walking out of class on Friday over Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill. The reporter or editor of the headline clearly hasn't even read the language in the Florida bill, because it doesn't even say "don't say gay" in the bill.

The Gazette must have changed the headline on Facebook recently (from April 1st), because the headline now reads: "Group of Skyview high school students walk out protesting anti-gay Florida law."

Anti-gay Florida law? How absurd is that. Complete fake news being reported by the Billings Gazette. I gave this comment when I first saw their headline on Facebook:

Headline is false. The bill blocks sexual content for kindergartners. You could just as easily call it an anti-heterosexual bill then based on your definition 

But the comment that really nailed it was from Braxton Mitchell, the young Republican state lawmaker from the Flathead Valley:

Rep. Mitchell was spot on. And here's what else is funny about this story. Rep. Mitchell's comment calling out the Billings Gazette's fake news headline generated 561 "likes" on Facebook as of Monday morning when I checked.  Meanwhile, only 132 clicked the "like" button for the Gazette's own story on their own Facebook page. 388 people laughed at the fake news story. Apparently this is what you call "getting ratio'ed" on social media.

By the way, even if the bill actually did say "don't say gay"- it's apparently very popular with the American voters, especially Hispanics (h/t The Wall Street Journal).