UPDATED REVIEW 1-10-2017: Our previous review of addictinginfo.org came when we had a simple binary ranking system. Our conclusion has been updated to match the new system. You’ll be seeing a lot of updated reviews as we continue to comb through the database. Sometimes, a news story has enough “clickability” on its own merits that it doesn’t warrant much alteration.…
The article submitted for WorldTruth.tv was a rehash on an old viral scare from a couple years back about the pacific ocean “dying.” Our issue with this story is that, with the exception of 1 link about Chernobyl, all of the source links point to fear-mongering www.enenews.com, a site that focus solely on questionable conclusions from questionable science. Most of…
The Onion is one of the only satire website on the internet that does satire really well. If you didn’t realize that an Onion article was satire, you probably weren’t properly reading (and subsequently laughing).
If there's some sort of civil unrest, impending cataclysm, or upcoming plague, NaturalNews.com is selling something for it. But are they real, satire, or something worse?
PolitiFacts.com is actually a pretty good source for vetting political (mis)information. As far as we can tell, it’s not satire. They do a pretty good job at taking an article and debunking it with plenty of hyperlinked information and sources. Remember: You should always @mdash; always! @mdash; check sources. You definitely don’t want to fall completely down a source-search rabbit-hole,…
From the Rumor Mill News Facebook page: Politically Incorrect News Stranger than Fiction Usually True! This is kinda the same as when someone is going to say something, but they start with, “Not to be an asshole,” or “I’m not racist, but . . . ” and you know they are about to say something assholish or racist. If you…
NewsWire-24.com is based in the U.K. and geared mostly towards that audience. We looked at two stories, as best we could, to determine if it's real or not. Read onward:
Well . . . the good thing about the PCMD Gazette is that they separate the satire from everything else. But their actual news is more like Fox News — colored. For instance, their “Affordable Care Act could cut the number of full-time workers in the U.S. by more than 2 million” article is based off an IMO flawed CBO…
Mr. Conservative ran this headline not too long ago: “Obama Admin. Hands Out Pamphlet: “What To Do When The Veteran In Your Classroom Attempts A Mass Shooting”” The source? Duffel Blog, which we’ve covered before. And then they ran: “FBI Raids Conservative Site For Writing Article About Obama’s Birth Certificate” Its source? The National Report. In two minutes, I’ve found…
As of this writing, 800whistleblower.com has this image on the landing page: — which asks you to visit www.Wistleblower411.com. Click THAT link fires off a series of 2 or 3 redirects in rapid succession, before landing on a page asking you to disable search tracking. We want to mark them as ClickBait — and likely dangerous for your computer’s well-being…
Okay, I’ll bite . . . CNN was submitted twice in a three-day period. No story or article, just ‘cnn.com.’ [Editorial Note: Please see the update to this statement at the end of our verdict.] Whoever submitted it: was likely the same person; was likely trying to make a point; probably didn’t think that we could turn this maybe-pisstake into…
Caveat emptor! While touted as the “British Onion,” it is actually a mix of current events, tabloid/gossip, and satire. It’s debatable whether or not their satire is adequately marked, so be careful with this one!
Spoiler-Alert: We think American News is satire. You read that right: we're marking American News "satire". Not just ''fake news", but honest to goodness satire . . . of a sort. But lest you're quick to judge and judge us harshly, here us out:
From their Disclaimer page: Free Wood Post is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within FreeWoodPost.com are fiction, and presumably fake news. From their Twitter profile: News That’s Almost Reliable
We actually commend Conservative Outfitters on their schtict. They sell clothes (and other things like coffee mugs, ‘museum quality’ artwork) on a nicely designed website that tries to draw a weak connection to a well established clothing store (Urban Outfitters) — all with conservative slogans, mantras, quotes, etc — while redistributing news from other Conservative outlets. Enrage the audience. Then…
Someone submitted “canservativetribune.com.” Unfortunately, there’s no such site. But there should be. It would be the perfect snark-site for Conservative Tribune, which we have already talked about. (Seriously, someone should get on that.)
Slate Magazine is an online current affairs and culture magazine. Inititally created in 1996 under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN, it is now managed by The Slate Group, an online publishing entity created by Graham Holdings Company to develop and manage web-only magazines. The article presented to us was: Abolish the Week! It’s unnatural. It’s unnecessary. Why…
While they may be biased much of the time (because they are), Fox News is considered a real, legitimate news source. You’re advised to take every news article shared from their site with a grain of salt and try and find additional sources for the same story — preferably one that doesn’t cite Fox News.
The Telegraph started off as The Daily Telegraph and Courier. It is a broadsheet newspaper — you know, those comically long newspapers, like the Daily Prophet from Harry Potter (minus the animation (for now)) — that is distributed in Great Britain, Ireland, and abroad. It is considered real news, although they have posted various premature obituaries. One such premature obit,…