Fact Check: Did two Missouri State Senators participate in a book burning event? Viral claim explored

Since September 16, pictures and videos of two Missouri state senators allegedly burning books with flamethrowers in a book-burning event have been doing rounds on the internet. A publication, MTN, also shared the news on September 17, 2023, where they have made similar claims. The title of the article reads:

“Missouri Gubernatorial Candidate and State Senator Participate in Book Burning.”

The article also stated how the book-burning event happened during the weekend and was called the St. Charles County Freedom Fest. It read:

“Republican Missouri Gubernatorial Candidate and State Senator Bill Eigel along with Missouri State Senator Nick Schroer participated in a book burning this weekend using flame throwers at an event called the St. Charles County Freedom Fest. State Senator Schroer is in front with glasses on using a flame thrower, while State Senator and Gubernatorial Candidate Eigel stands behind him with the second flamethrower."

A screenshot of the MTN article (Image via MTN)

However, there is no proof that a book-burning event happened at the St. Charles County Freedom Fest on September 15, 2023, in Missouri. Furthermore, looking at the video closely, it can be seen that there are no books in the frame, and none of the reliable media houses have published any such news about the State Senators participating in a book-burning event.

Hence, contrary to what netizens believe, the two senators were not burning books, and the news being spread is fake and untrue.

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Two Missouri Senators were not burning books: More details explored as Eigel and Schroer respond to the allegations

As the news spread like wildfire, state senators Bill Eigel and Nick Schroer responded to the allegations and claimed that they were not burning any books and that the boxes seen burning were, in fact, empty. The senators claimed that they were burning the empty boxes, as they represented the “woke, liberal and leftist” policies.

Eigel released a statement and said:

Senator Bill Eigel's statement on the book burning accusations (Image via X)

Nick Schroer also responded to the allegations and again claimed they only burned empty boxes to celebrate “freedom.” Posting about the same on Facebook, he said:

Nick Schroer's statement on Facebook (Image via Facebook)

The two Senators clarified that they were not burning any books in the event and were just burning cardboard boxes to show their anguish towards new government policies.

This incident again highlights the importance of verifying the sources before sharing any news or posts. Social media users should develop a practice of carefully verifying the sources and then sharing the information so that the fake news does not spread around on the internet, deceiving the masses.