I did something similar as a poster:
The OP to that thread was me credulously repeating a story about union crews in territory damaged by Hurricane Sandy turning away crews sent to help repair because they were non-union. I accurately reported the story from my source, which was itself a television station (and NOT a Fox station, I might add).
But the source was wrong. Deceptive.
And there a couple of responses to me:
Those posters did not receive warnings. The thread was moved to the Pit and there was a general admonition, not directed by name at anyone:
That was certainly appropriate mod action.
I, however, said something that I think is clearly more mild and less accusatory than “spreading falsehoods” and got warned.
In my opinion, that’s how it works. The conservative posters get a bit less leeway, and thus functionally identical behavior means that conservative posters accumulate mod notes where liberals would get general admonitions; conservative posters get warnings where liberals doing the same type of thing get mod notes; conservative posters get suspended for a month while liberal posters get two weeks; and then when banning is discussed, what a surprise! It’s justified based on number of warnings, and length of previous suspensions.