No, Murphy's Daughter Didn't Have Bachelorette Party At The Shore

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, NJ — Camille Tough, a South Jersey resident, just wanted to celebrate her upcoming nuptials with three friends at the shore this past Saturday. But when the four women were near a bar on the boardwalk, a man began "harassing" them and taking photos of them, she said Monday.

Sunday evening, someone posted a grainy photo of her and her friends to a New Jersey-based Facebook group that says it's run by "a group of members with experience in public safety past and present," along with the words: "Seaside Heights, Ocean County: We have received a photo showing New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy’s daughter having her bachelorette party, ignoring the mask and social distancing mandate enacted by her own father."

The post was still up 24 hours later and had been shared 5,200 times by Monday night, despite the fact that the false rumors about Gov. Phil Murphy's daughter's engagement have been addressed in media reports in the last two weeks — and despite the fact that the woman and her friends commented under the post that it was false.

"Just wanted to personally post on this and say it isn't the governor's daughter it's ME!!!!" Tough wrote under the post Monday morning. "I was out enjoying my bachelorette weekend with my girls! We were harassed by a man claiming I was the governor's daughter and when we told him that I wasn't her he still continued to harass myself and my friends. Also he was not wearing a mask as well and tried to get extremely close to us."

She added, "I feel very sorry for the lack of respect people have towards other people. I feel sorry for the governor's daughter who is being attacked, no one should do that. I'm not sure what is happening to this world but people really need to love more instead of put out all this hate. These comments are cruel and unnecessary. Next time you want to put out something mean, maybe think about how it would affect you. Kindness wins !!!"

The false claim about the governor's daughter's engagement may have spread around the internet because the state's police superintendent said in April that his own daughter would have to postpone a wedding celebration. "With regard to the seriousness of how we’re taking this and how everybody should, it was not an easy phone call to make last night, my wife and I made to my daughter who’s supposed to be married in June," he said in the daily briefing. "Her reaction was one that you can well imagine of heartbreak."

In hundreds of internet posts since then, people have castigated both Murphy and the supposed location of the supposed upcoming indoor wedding, asking why others had to postpone special events and the governor's daughter did not. The venue, possibly targeted because Murphy praised it in April for feeding frontline workers, also recently posted on Facebook debunking the rumors. (See: Gov. Murphy's Daughter Is Not Getting Married In Morris County)

Such false news items — as well as the fact that people share them without a quick fact-check — have concerned many, including American prosecutors.

The federal government charged in 2018 that foreign operatives used fake Facebook posts to incite Americans to fight with each other and thus influence elections, and indicted a dozen operatives for attempting to do so in 2018.

In one case, two fake Facebook groups created by foreign operatives resulted in a live protest in Texas in 2016.

The problem is still prevalent during the pandemic; in fact, some of the people who spread the Murphy post without fact-checking it — it was subsequently shared from other groups' pages — also claimed that the coronavirus pandemic is non-existent or exaggerated, in a state where neighbors are grieving a reported 13,613 residents who passed away due to the virus in 18 weeks.

Politicians in both major political parties have railed against sharing "fake news" without doing research.

Some of the commenters on the photo said they believed it was true because of state legislator Declan O'Scanlon's Tweet over the weekend:

On Tuesday, when asked if he planned to remove the Tweet and whether he feels false news is an issue now, O'Scanlon responded, "I never confirmed that any picture was of the governor’s daughter. There were — still are — rumors flying all over social media about the behavior of politicians’ children, the governor’s in particular. My tweet’s sole goal was to suggest that directly and intentionally targeting the kids of elected officials isn’t fair. They shouldn’t be the subject of attack. It’s actually even worse if photos are published that are fraudulently purported to be of them."

He added that everyone should "be careful and do their homework" and combat falsehoods, no matter which political side they come from.

On Monday night people were still insisting on Facebook that the governor's daughter — who is 20 and in college — is getting married while everyone else had to postpone their weddings.

"Senator Declan O’Scanlin confirmed it was her," argued one commenter in the Facebook thread, after someone told her it was a different woman. "This could be a person paid to say this."

The criticism varied, with some asking why the wealthy Murphy family wouldn't find a more elaborate place to celebrate than the boardwalk.

The governor's press office confirmed on Tuesday that there's no truth to the wedding rumor and said his daughter is not engaged. They declined further comment on the rumor.

On Sunday, an Ocean County website removed its post from the night before about Murphy's daughter, but said they did so because it's "proper to leave his family out of it."

Some commenters on social media even claimed she was getting married on July 25, when they expect the state to enter a new phase.

For her part, the bride-to-be told Patch on Monday, "I just really feel for the Murphy family. People are just so mean these days."

She said she didn't know who the cameraman was and did not report him to police, but that her friends told the bartender at Beachcombers about him. "He did end up leaving us alone but kept close," she said, "obviously waiting to take a photo."

After she and her friends posted in the thread Sunday and Monday, several people congratulated Tough on her impending nuptials. She told Patch she's getting married in December.

Tough added, "I spoke my piece so that maybe people would read it and stop posting so much hateful stuff, but it didn’t work. No one is listening to it and continuing to talk trash."

Murphy decreed last week that people must wear masks outdoors when not social distancing, and when not eating or drinking at an outdoor establishment (as the women appeared to be doing), along with other exceptions.

Photos of maskless crowds at the Jersey Shore sparked ire over the weekend, including from rocker Peter Frampton.

Murphy did arouse accusations of hypocrisy last month for appearing at protests, in apparent violation of his orders about the size of crowds.

But a rumor that spread two weeks ago about Murphy and his wife dining indoors turned out to be false.

At the peak of the virus in New Jersey, on April 30, 460 people were recorded as passing away in 24 hours, or one person every three minutes. Average deaths reported each day have declined since then, generally hovering between 25 and 45 in July.

Murphy has told residents to quarantine when returning from 22 states that are currently experiencing their own daily records in hospitalizations and deaths this month, such as Florida and Texas, which recently had to re-close beaches and bars. (Four states were added to the list on Tuesday, and Delaware was removed.)

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