alternet.org is considered a “progressive activist site” and “independent news site.” It’s financed through individual donations, by grants from major donors, and ad revenue. It’s that last bit that tells you the sort of headlines you can expect, on par with the current Netstream Media practices. They have won an assortment of Webby Awards throughout the years, as well as…
It’s clear that BTNOMB is primarily an entertainment site, filled with the sorts of “juicy” celeb stories that may or may not eventually be proven true — and by the time the gossip is proven, everyone has moved on to the next big story. But are they real? Satire? Or something worse?
With gamingfreepress.com, it (thankfully) doesn’t take much to determine if the site is real or satire. From their About page: But the real question: Are they funny though? Ehhh . . . humor is subjective.
Thought Catalog is a site for op-ed pieces. They also tend to repost — and resell — Reddit posts. From their About page: The more worldviews and rhetorical styles on the site, the better. We want to tell all sides of the story. Whether or not they are vigorous with fact-checking is another — and likely, moot — question; the…
Christians for Michelle Bachman is a satirical slam against both Michelle Bachman and her staunchest supporters. Its typical m.o. is to combine some right-wing talking point with spelling/grammar mistakes. While this sort of appeal to ridicule is fallacious, it does lend itself to some well-crafted comedy.
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…
No, Patti Labelle did not punch Aretha Franklin; and no, Leonardo DiCaprio will not play the role of MLK Jr. in blackface. Newsnerd is nice enough to contain the following disclaimer on every page: The stories posted on TheNewsNerd are for entertainment purposes only. The stories may mimic articles found in the headlines, but rest assured they are purely satirical.…
Remember when the KKK announced that they would back then Presidential-nominee Barack Obama in order to avoid the election of Hillary Clinton? Sure you do! It was discussed on Reuters and The Times, albeit in opinion columns; and the ever-irrefutable Snoop Dogg mentioned it during an Guardian interview. Well, anyway . . . that story originated from The Daily Squib.…
Fortunately, you don't need to look far to see the intent of ourlandofthefree.com -- it's in their footer, complete with their own Satire rating, just in case.
From their About page: Using [. . .] tongue-in-cheek sarcasm and satire, the website liberalbias.com is dedicated to promoting and publicizing graphs, statistics, and facts that somehow (inexplicably, for conservatives) support liberal beliefs, theories, or ideals. Liberal Bias is a member of the WinkProgress family.
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.
If you wish to believe that Apple Annouces[sic] Release of Paranormal Communication Application or that a New Gandhi Movie Shocks India, then World News Daily Report is the site for you. But kindly leave our boots well and dry, thank you very much. World News Daily Report follows the old-school Tabloid-styled faux-journalism of its predecessors, such as the Weekly World…
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.…
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…
Not much else can be said about The Inconsequential that their very own (horribly written) About page doesn’t already cover; namely: “Never mind the quantity feel the wit.” They do, however, have a lovely dictionary (Dikipaedia) of neologisms and portmanteaux that they’ve coined and/or used in their articles.
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…
As with comedy, timing is everything for “satire” and ClickBait sites. Take this article submitted for The Daily Snark: Jason Pierre-Paul Blows Off Other Hand After His Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Explodes. With Samsung’s ‘Exploding‘ Galaxy Note 7 recall in the news and being banned on all U.S. Flights, it’s very easy to believe something like this. Until, that is,…
Owned by Atlantic Media, the National Journal is an award-winning political magazine. Not quite sure of its political leanings, but it’s a real news source. Follow them on Twitter, here.
You can usually determine a site’s validity in about 5 seconds by looking at three things: disclaimers located at the footer of the front-/home-page (if you’re lucky and the site actually has one!); the number (and sometimes type) of ads on the site; images for the articles. So when we went to the article submitted for City World News (Handicapped…
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!
