I'll be honest. When I saw the story, I was like "That's just unfair." and believed it. Even though I stopped caring about politicians or standing behind any of them, and I know politics is a show, a circus, I believed it. I'm not sure if it's because of the fact I read it here or why.

If something is really hyped up, comes from everywhere, mostly you can find that only half-truth is presented. Some twist is needed to gain a bigger exposure, to manipulate more efficiently. That's how stories like this go viral. People get all fired up on social media because of some big injustice that could go well with the belief system lots of people share.

That's why this Kokesh story worked, that's why the "Trump is a fascist and that's why he is against illegal immigrants" works, that's why it is completely logical for lots of people to spend billions on wars every single year, etc.

But the same method applies to "smaller" story too:

Story that caused an outrage: Personal trainer/gym owner kicked out a man from his gym purely because that man had Down-Syndrome.
Reality: The gym owner was afraid the man with the Down-Syndrome will injure himself and believed he needs special attention, so suggested to go to a professional or a place where he could train safely and with additional guidance.
Journalist to the gym owner on phone: Well, sorry but this is an opportunity we can't miss.

Facts, honesty, statistics don't work on a mass scale. Emotional manipulation, presenting everything as an illogical, injustice that goes against our morals do work. Politicians, journalists know that and only virality matters to them. Nothing else.