It’s not only the national media that uses propaganda to advance the Democratic Party’s agenda. State and local media outlets have also been getting in on the act, with their alleged journalists using their platforms to influence their audience under the guise of informing it.

In this case, a California newspaper attributed a false quote to a Republican congressional candidate regarding his position on abortion. The Democratic candidate’s campaign pounced on this opportunity to exploit a fake quote against his opponent.

It took more than three weeks for the Sacramento Bee to correct the candidate questionnaire it published on Feb. 5, in which it quoted Republican candidate and Stockton, California Mayor Kevin Lincoln as saying he is "anti-abortion," when in fact he described himself as "pro-life" with exceptions for "rape, incest, and the health of the mother."

"What is your view on abortion rights? What would you want Congress to do now, if anything?" the paper asked in the questionnaire.

"I support the Supreme Court putting the power back in the hands of the states where it belongs. California is a pro-choice state. I am pro-life and support exceptions such as rape, incest, and the health of the mother. I am not going to Congress to support a federal abortion ban," Lincoln wrote in his original answer.

The Sacramento Bee issued a correction to the article on Feb. 27, claiming the piece was "edited to conform to Associated Press style guidelines on abortion," which dictate that modifiers "anti-abortion or anti-abortion rights" be used, rather than "pro-life, pro-choice or pro-abortion," unless they are being used as proper names or in a quote, as was Lincoln's case.

The misquote was a gift to incumbent Democratic Rep. Josh Harder, who leveraged it in a fundraising email. His campaign email read: “He’s on the record saying, ‘I am anti-abortion,’ as if that was something to be proud of!”

To make the issue even worse, the Sacramento Bee took three whole weeks to issue a correction after their “error” was revealed. Lincoln’s campaign and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) accused Harder of cynically using a false quote to bolster his campaign.

NRCC spokesperson Ben Peterson slammed Harder over the fundraising email, saying that “There is no low self-serving Josh Harder won’t stoop to,” and accused him of “weaponizing a fake quote.”

There is no way to find out exactly how many residents in the district for which Lincoln is running actually read the Bee’s article to see the fake quote. However, given that Harder’s campaign was quick to exploit the false statement, it is not unrealistic to speculate that a considerable swath of the electorate likely has an erroneous understanding of Lincoln’s abortion stance.

Indeed, the fact that it took the supposed news outlet three weeks to issue the correction, which was likely not seen by most of those who saw the original version, makes it difficult to assume the Sacramento Bee’s misquote was an honest mistake. Indeed, even if the reporter made an error, why would it take three entire weeks to fix it?

In a state like California, a candidate’s abortion stance is an important matter given the overturning of Roe v. Wade. There is no telling how this could impact the outcome of the race, but it does give even more reasons to be wary of certain media outlets.