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 link:
From Stacked Overflow:
If there is no tag within the page, then the browser will just link to the top of the page. If the fragment is empty, then it will also just link to the top of the page.
For a fragment only Link name, then that’s just a link to the top of the current page.
This is the result of either a rush-job, lazy web developing/design, or both. Either way, it’s a good indicator on a site’s legitimacy.
In the case of Empire Herald, however, we need to look deep into their Terms of Service page. Very deep, in fact, since this little nugget is buried at the very bottom of the page:
But with stories about cannibalistic meth addicts and a rapey pitbull lover who gets his comeuppance, Empire Herald is nothing if not entertaining.