## Definition
Bowling Green is a city in south-central Kentucky, United States, with a population of approximately 75,000. It is the third-largest city in Kentucky and the home of Western Kentucky University. The city is known for several things: the National Corvette Museum (which houses a sinkhole that swallowed eight Corvettes in 2014); the manufacturing plant that produces the Chevrolet Corvette; and a vibrant cave system including Lost River Cave. But Bowling Green became internet-famous in 2017 for a reason unrelated to any of these attractions: when Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway referenced a “Bowling Green Massacre” — a terrorist attack that never happened — the city became a symbol of “alternative facts” and the post-truth era.
## Why It Matters
Bowling Green matters as a case study in how misinformation spreads and persists. On February 2, 2017, Kellyanne Conway told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews that the media had not covered the “Bowling Green massacre” — two Iraqi refugees who “were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre” — as evidence that the press had ignored terrorism. The statement was false: there was no massacre in Bowling Green. Two Iraqi men had been arrested in Bowling Green in 2011 for attempting to send weapons and money to Al-Qaeda in Iraq, but they had killed no one. Conway later claimed she “misspoke” and meant to say “Bowling Green terrorists,” but the damage was done: “Bowling Green Massacre” became a meme, a punchline, and a cautionary tale about the ease with which falsehoods enter public discourse.
## Example
The 2011 case: Waad Ramadan Alwan and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, two Iraqi refugees living in Bowling Green, were arrested by the FBI in an sting operation. They had agreed to provide weapons, explosives, and money to what they believed was an Al-Qaeda affiliate, but the recipient was actually an FBI informant. They were convicted and sentenced to prison. The case was covered by media at the time, though not extensively. There was no massacre, no deaths, and no attack. Conway’s statement transformed this obscure case into a national controversy, and Bowling Green — a mid-sized Kentucky city with no connection to terrorism — became an unwilling symbol of the Trump administration’s relationship with facts.
## Internet Angle
“Bowling Green Massacre” is internet-famous as a meme and a fact-checking case study. The phrase trended on Twitter within hours of Conway’s statement, with users posting jokes, fake memorials, and “never forget” tributes to an event that never occurred. The Wikipedia page for Bowling Green was temporarily edited to include the “massacre” as a hoax. Reddit threads analyzed the incident as an example of how false memories or false statements become “truth” through repetition. The Bowling Green Massacre is now a standard reference in media literacy discussions: it is cited in journalism classes, fact-checking guides, and academic papers about misinformation. The city itself has embraced its unexpected fame: local businesses sell “Bowling Green Massacre” merchandise, and the incident is part of the city’s modern identity.
## Related Terms
– **Kellyanne Conway**: The advisor who invented the “Bowling Green Massacre”
– **Alternative facts**: The phrase Conway used to defend false statements
– **Misinformation**: The category of information problem the incident exemplifies
– **Western Kentucky University**: The major university in Bowling Green
– **Corvette Museum**: The attraction most people actually associate with Bowling Green
– **Post-truth**: The political era that the Bowling Green incident symbolizes
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