A fabricated anti-Semitic quote entered the Congressional Record and circulated for decades

Evidence

For example, one enterprising author, Eustace Mullins, Jr., who once wrote a piece entitled “Adolf Hitler: An Appreciation,” also invented a book entitled A Racial Program for the Twentieth Century, which he attributed to a nonexistent “leading British Communist,” Israel Cohen. The book revealed a nonexistent Zionist plot to destroy the United States through racial unrest. During debate on a civil rights bill in June 1957, Mississippi Congressman Thomas G. Abernathy quoted it into the Congressional Record. “The phoney quote continued to circulate among bigots in the 1980s” (Boller and George, 1989, pp. 15-16). — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 4315

Categorization

• QUESTION: How often do fabricated quotes make it into official legislative records, and does anything ever correct the record?
• SHARE: Send to anyone interested in disinformation history or Congressional record integrity.