Real or Satire?

Copy and paste any article URL below. We'll tell you if it's real.

theplantain.com -

We love The Platain. They’re funny. They have videos. And, for our purposes, they made it easy to determine their satirical nature. If you cannot glean their comedy from their videos (like “Plantain Action News: Amendment 2: The Plantain Gets High!” or “Traffic Fatalities Increase 9% According To Article I Read On My Phone While Driving,” for example), they have…



enduringvision.com -

Enduring Vision graciously reveals its satirical nature in its own logo. But read on to find out why we really like their site!



countercurrentnews.com -

Counter Current News is a fringe news source. They’ve reported on the murder of an Anonymous hacktivist Abu Shehadeh and even on the Banksy arrest hoax. The one post they have marked “satire” is actually a real article about a group of Muslims making a satirical spoof video on ISIS. While some of the stories might seem like humor, (e.g.,…



elitedaily.com -

Elite Daily is advertised, via their Facebook page, as a “HuffPost without the cats” when “BuzzFeed just isn’t enough.” One should consider Elite Daily more as one big Op-Ed piece. They have a shared office space with Elite SEM (if that matters ((which it likely does)) and the site appears to be gunning as a disrupting agent for the likes…



7uplagi.com -

We're assuming that 7uplagi.com is in the Indonesian language. No one here speaks it. From the homepage, however, filled with overly happy, beautiful women (some even suggestively eating a bomb-pop) we assume it's mostly ClickBait sensationalism banking on ad-revenue from click-hungry horny men.



nydailynews.com -

NY Daily News does contain a lot of clearly marked op-ed pieces. And they definitely lean towards one end of the political spectrum. They can, however, be considered real. Be sure to check the originating section of the article before resharing or determining any truth-value. Addendum 11-22-2016: Since this post, we’ve updated our review system to include the categories ClickBait,…



avclub.com -

The A.V. Club is owned by The Onion; however, the site is not specifically satirical. They are more of an entertainment news site, though they maintain a decidedly humorous slant. They might have satire in their Comedy section, but it’s not the ‘Gotchya!’ sort of satire. Looking at three random articles: Insane Clown Posse’s FBI lawsuit thrown out; Juggalos are…



thelisticles.net -

Content heavily reliant on lists have been the bane of many people’s leisure-time reading since time immemorial. Well . . . maybe not that long, but we get lists all the time, from Rolling Stone to David Letterman. Billboard Magazine is practically just one big-ol’ list and BuzzFeed got its initial, ahem, buzz from their high turnover list-rate. Which is…



viralworthy.net -

Viral Worthy can’t even be original enough to come up with a better name for itself. It’s another Upworthy clone. Another in a long list of Upworthy clones. Viral Worthy basically scours the ‘Net for something that is “amazing” and “unbelievable” and “shocking” and re-post it. An example would be their post: 33 AMAZINGLY USEFUL WEBSITES YOU NEVER KNEW EXISTED.…



empireherald.com -

One of the ways to check if a news source is legit is to simply look at the site itself. At first glance, Empire Herald seems fairly legit — the site looks polished and well formatted. But the site’s footer is ripe with broken/non-existent links, particularly the contact us and advertise links, both of which point to a # relative…



tribuneherald.net -

This one is actually easy, simply because the site itself tells us that it’s satirical. Check their Facebook About page and you’ll see — Long Description. Tribune Herald is a satirical publication. So . . . that’s that, right? 😉



18karatreggae.com -

We can't tell if 18karatreggae's headlines are considered ClickBait in Jamaica, or if they're just really bad at writing them. Three stories check out; 1 does not. Are they real? Satire? Or ClickBait?



abefinklestein.com -

From their About Page: "Abe Finklestein is a Bonafide Sports Humour Website created by South Carolina native Beefy “funny” Barnes a South Carolina import and thugged out nerd who now resides in Phila’s University City." Some of it gave me a good chuckle a couple times.



duffelblog.com -

Unfamiliar though this site is to us, Duffelblog.com was an easy one. Buried deep on its About page: The ease of discovery is a testament to the site-creator’s character: Paul Szoldra isn’t trying to trick us or pass on misinformation en malice. A quick Google search revealed that the marine veteran started Duffel Blog originally as a way to drive…



derfmagazine.com -

Based out of Cincinnati, Derf’s website is too colorful to be taken seriously. “Maybe they figure that colorful news sites will grab your attention better?” Eh, fair enough. From their About page: DERF Magazine.com is the premier provider of humor and satire content in Cincinnati. Derf is dedicated to making fun of everything!



njuz.net -

We’re really going to have to put limits on what we can do here, at RoS. We’ve mentioned before that we are an English-language site, though we can generally suss out Spanish, German, and Dutch sites. That does limit us and the sort of data we can provide; however, so long as these international sites make it easy to suss…



thepcmdgazette.com -

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…



nationalreview.com -

By their own admission, the National Review is a right-leaning site/magazine known for “up-to-the-minute conservative commentary on politics, news, and culture.” Author William F. Buckley Jr. Buckley founded the magazine in the early 50s and, himself, was known for several controversies: He co-authored a book defending McCarthyism and referred to HIV/AIDS as a “gay curse,” calling for immediate sterilization of…



redrocktribune.com -

Per their Facebook page: "The Red Rock Tribune is a conservative news and opinion website."



mzansidaily.co.za -

Mzansi Daily is South Africa’s Daily News Website. It’s hard to verify whether or not some of the stories are real, especially the ones that are specific to South Africa that isn’t internationally reported news. But they have enough actual global news (“UK Woman Caught Urinating In Busy Street“, which, damn) sprinkled about their site that makes me think that…



Copy and paste any article URL below. We'll tell you if it's real.