Arizona’s Family Revises Facebook Post That Confused Tennessee and Arizona Governor’s Races

Arizona’s Family revised a widely viewed Facebook post after its wording led some readers to believe Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Andy Biggs had proposed banning mosques and non-Christian religions.

The original post stated: “A Republican candidate for governor in this state plans to ban mosques and non-Christian religions if elected.”

Because the post appeared on the Facebook page of the Phoenix-based 3TV and CBS 5 news operation, commenters interpreted “this state” as a reference to Arizona. The post received more than 7,000 reactions and thousands of comments before the station revised it.

The candidate referenced in the underlying story wasn’t Biggs, however. It was Tennessee state Rep. Monty Fritts, a Republican candidate for governor of Tennessee.

Fritts recently said he would seek to prohibit mosques and religions he described as “pagan,” including Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. He also argued that the First Amendment’s restrictions on government establishment of religion do not apply to state governments.

Arizona’s Family later changed the Facebook post to clarify that the candidate was running in Tennessee. The station did not append a correction notice or explanation acknowledging the earlier wording.

Some users noticed the change and criticized the station for revising the post without disclosing the correction. Arizona Globe contacted the station for an explanation of the original wording and its decision not to add a correction notice. It did not provide an on-the-record comment.