Real or Satire?

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

speld.nl -

I mean . . . we are Americans over here at Real or Satire. 😉 I can read and write German fairly well, but that’s the extent of our linguistic skills outside of English. When I see a .nl top-level domain and some German-looking words on the website, I assume it’s likely a Dutch-based site. While Dutch and German have…



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!



topekasnews.com -

While TopekasNews.com might look legit, you’ll quickly find that the stories are exaggerated or just plain fake. Well . . . that is, if you can even pull up their website, which routinely returns an ‘Service Temporarily Unavailable’ server error. (Seriously! Every other link-click returns a server error. What is this? Satire Amateur Hour??)



tezhazirlamaevi.com -

Tez Hazirlama Evi is a Turkish site. No one here at RoS speaks Turkish. Sorry. If you do speak Turkish and would love to help us out on this one, please do! EDIT: Special thanks to site-visitor 4DEATH, who provided a bit of info on Tez Hazirlama Evi: Thiis is not a news website. It claims to write thesis (university)…



thespoof.com -

With a name like The Spoof it’s impossible for anyone to think that it’s real. But just in case, there’s always the footer, which reads: All items on this website are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental or is intended purely as a satire, parody or spoof. Please see our terms and conditions and disclaimer.



9news.com.au -

Though the .com.au gives us pause, 9news.com.au appears to have been half-owned by Microsoft until recently. They get some stories from outside sources, especially their entertainment sections. You’re advised to be careful; some of those sources can be the more sensational sites, like The Sun. This gives some entertainment stories a very TMZ-like gossip-y feel. Based in Australia,



realfarmacy.com -

Real Farmacy is difficult to categorize. They’re not satire, but they’re not exactly real, either. Or, should I say, they’re not exactly factual. Oh, they’ll post mostly-real; or real stories, but it’ll be a story that’s 10 years old (see below); or it will be a mostly-true story with misleading headlines, which isn’t something that is entirely new to anyone…



newsexaminer.net -

The article sent to us to review was "World’s First Head Transplant A Success After Nineteen Hour Operation." But . . . is it real?



wetindeyng.blogspot.se -

Wetindeyng is dubious at best. And this goes for its mirror-site (or whatever) www.wetindey.com. It is a repository of articles, usually without commentary and definitely without fact-checking. For instance, making the rounds now (again) is an old tale about how a pretty girl seeking a rich husband got a shocking Investment banker’s reply. And here’s the Snopes article on it.…



nahadaily.com -

Naha Daily's website is down (or no longer active). Should we still review them? Yes! Find out why, and if their site is satirical or no.



nbc-news.net -

We almost feel bad reviewing nbc-news.net. Undoubtedly, seasoned RoS visitors wouldn't fall for the site's cheap tactics. Putting this here kinda feels like we're insulting our readership. But . . . someone submitted it, so we're obliged to review it.



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?



washingtonpost.com -

The Washington Post has been in circulation, posting real news, for almost 150 years. In the 70s, The Washington Post was responsible for breaking the story regarding the FBI’s COINTELPRO scandal, J Edgar Hoover’s attack on political targets (including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr). COINTELPRO used tactics against these targets that ranged from illegal wiretaps, planting forged documents, and spreading…



readersupportednews.org -

This is a difficult one to assess. RSN is exactly as its name suggests: reader-supported news. From their about page: Reader Supported News is a new service by the creator of Truthout, Marc Ash. [. . .] Truthout built its following among readers who wanted to better understand the most important stories of the day, but had grown tired of…



naijaurban.com -

I can’t click a link on Naijaurban without fear of being pulled into some Nigerian scam. That said, the site is likely a mix of local news (as in, Nigerian-local), entertainment news, half-news, and questionably-real-news. Take anything from this site with a grain of salt. But with articles like My Boyfriend’s Father Is Very Good In The Bedroom, See How…



hamptonroads.com -

From their ABOUT US page: PilotOnline.com and HamptonRoads.com are Web sites produced by The Virginian-Pilot, which is owned by Landmark Media Enterprises L.L.C., based in Norfolk, Va. The Web sites serve the greater Hampton Roads metro area, stretching from Williamsburg to the north, Virginia Beach to the east, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina to the south. As far…



thenationalsun.com -

When we went to The National Sun’s Facebook page, the first thing we’re greeted with was — — and instantly we wanted to believe everything they had to say. I mean . . . look at him! Really, take a look at him!!! Alas, their About section reveals their true nature: There’s also the Disclaimer on their website: The National…



ironictimes.com -

Mostly headlines and subheads, but satire nonetheless.



spreadingromney.com -

I mean . . . it’s real. He really did that shit (pun intended). You can read tonnes of stuff about this site. Definitely real.



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…



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