Real or Satire?

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

thespeciousreport.com -

The definition of specious: 1. Having the ring of truth or plausibility but actually fallacious: a specious argument. 2. Deceptively attractive. So it’s in the website title.



worldtruth.tv -

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…



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…



beehivebugle.com -

The Beehive Bugle’s About Us page should tell it all: Beehive Bugle is a Utah-focused, faith-based initiative, delivering internet-based speculative law and gospel reports since 1897. In our current, corporeal [emphasis theirs, but telling] incarnation, we give you the news you need to know when you need to know it. Then it has this sentence, which is basically a paraphrased…



theonion.com -

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).



winkprogress.com -

Well . . . their logo is the Statue of Liberty winking at you. I imagine WinkProgress is fake. If not entirely fake, the part that caused someone to share an article on Facebook or Google Plus is certainly made-up. From their Facebook page: WinkProgress.com your source for Radical-LEFT-Wing-Comedy Conspiracy! From their About Us page: WinkProgress.com, [. . .] where…



naturalnews.com -

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?



delightfulknowledge.com -

Delightful Knowledge is only moderately delightful. A couple of their articles, namely, the article “NASA Confirms Earth Will Experience 6 Days of Total Darkness in December 2014!,” cite Huzler.com as a source. Huzler.com has the following disclaimer in their footers: “Huzlers.com is a combination of real shocking news and satirical entertainment to keep its visitors in a state of disbelief.”…



newyorker.com -

While the New Yorker is, of course, real news, the URL that came our way was for the Borowitz Report. From Andy Borowitz’s Wiki page: In 2001, he founded The Borowitz Report, a site that posts one 250-word news satire every weekday. Borowitz also hosts The Moth, which is a most excellent storytelling show on public radio.



private-eye.co.uk -

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!



heaviermetal.net -

We actually rather enjoy Heavier Metal — and not simply because Metal has a fond place in our hearts. The satire here has plenty of the stuff other 'satire' sites lack: humor.



cap-news.com -

As of this writing, their top story was Rock And Roll Hall Again Denies Johnny Bravo. Which is pretty funny in and of itself. From their About page: For the best in online satire of news and current events, one needs only to turn to CAP News for a full day’s laugh in just 60 seconds. [. . .] The…



politicalears.com -

The article submitted to us from PoliticalEars.com was this one: THREE OF FIVE DETAINEES SWAPPED ARE NOW ISIS LEADERS However, it’s basically a copy of this report from our good friends at National Report: Terrorist Exchanged For Bowe Bergdahl Now Top ISIS Commander Political Ears hadn’t noted its sources — likely because someone had already called them out on sourcing…



cnn.com.de -

My father always told me: "If it's too good to be true, then it's probably not." That's certainly the case with an article we're reviewing from CNN.com.de. Read onward!



antinews.in -

antinews.in relies on ClickBait bordering on fake news, often sourced from other disreputable sites, like Your News Wire.



bbc.com.newstimesdaily.com -

Anything with “newstimesdaily.com” affixed to the URL is Clickbait/JokeLink. Anything.



dailycurrant.com -

From their About page: The Daily Currant is an English language online satirical newspaper that covers global politics, business, technology, entertainment, science, health and media.



civictribune.com -

Civic Tribune’s tagline is “Dedicated To The Truth”; however, they’ve at least twice referenced Wyoming Institute of Technology, which we’ve already discussed. As a reminder: There’s no such thing. Either they are satirical, or they are lazy. I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.



zaytung.com -

Zaytung.com is a Turkish site. No one here speaks any Turkish. We were going to simply leave it at that* but we were able to gleen that the site is satire from their Wikipedia page**, which uses both “ironik” and “The Onion News” — two dead giveaways! But to be safe, we checked Google Translate. Machine-translation at its “finest. Original…



dnevno.hr -

Sorry, we don’t know about this one. No one here speaks the language. If you do and can provide the answer for us, with documentation to prove your assertion, please let us know.



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