The Fake MLK Quote

In the days after the death of Osama bin Laden, this quote made its way around the various social networking sites:

“I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy.” – Martin Luther King, Jr

For example, see http://twitter.com/#!/lemonadachick/status/78641605208313856, http://twitter.com/#!/AnisaAlii/status/78594506424987648, and http://twitter.com/#!/AmmadIzzat/status/78332559423045632, to grab a recent few.  A user named ‘benlee’ even had it as his profile: http://twitter.com/#!/benlee04. To search all of twitter, try this link: search (it doesn’t work when twitter is overloaded).

It’s a good quote. The problem is, it isn’t real.  Megan McArdle of The Atlantic was the first in the main-stream press to write on the story: Out of Osama’s Death, a Fake Quotation Is Born, and followed that up with an investigation into the likely origins: Anatomy of a Fake Quotation.

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