What happened was that journalists wrote articles claiming that Pepe was an alt-right symbol. But this was never based in fact, it was simply a misunderstanding

What happened was that journalists wrote articles claiming that Pepe was an alt-right symbol. But this was never based in fact, it was simply a misunderstanding by journalists ignorant of internet culture. The alt-right made a lot of Pepe memes because Pepe memes were popular at the time when Trump's campaign was taking off. The problem is that when journalists make mistakes, it becomes fact, true or not.