Urban Legend: President Obama Did NOT Confuse Wisconsin State Flag for Union Banner

Truth or Fiction

Summary of the eRumor:  This is a forwarded email that says that while speaking at a Master Lock factory in Milwaukee, Wisconsin President Obama mistook the state flag for a union banner, pointed to it and said, "A Union shop since 1848."

The Truth:  President Obama did make a speech at the Master Lock plant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on February 15, 2012 but he never said this.   The transcript and video of his visit are posted on the White House website.    Click here for transcript and video.   At first, we believed that this was someone's attempt at political humor but it turned out that there actually was a misidentification of the Wisconsin state flag for a union banner by Politico contributor Donovan Slack, who covered the event in [her] February 15, 2012 blog. The article was corrected and this notice appeared below it: An earlier 44 blog post about Obama’s visit to Wisconsin incorrectly identified the Wisconsin state flag.

Snopes has this to say about it.

LOL! Politico’s Donovan Slack Thinks Wisconsin State Flag Is Local Union Flag

Slack is referred to in this post from Big Journalism:  "Well, for the same reason Politico's Donovan Slack excludes the most important journalistic context in her own piece of hackery that blames Citizens United for Obama shattering the record for most presidential time spent at fundraisers:"...

(Left)  Donovan Slack