De-Faking News

[defakingnews]

Fort Wayne Man Dressed As Clown Shot In Head; Condition Critical

I couldn't find any author or date on the original link, but after I looked the article up on Snopes.com I was able to find out that the original source of the article was WaneTV.Wordpress.com. This is a fake news website, and the article was written in response to the reports of clown sightings across the U.S. The article claims that a man dressed as a clown was shot in the head by a driver who stopped in the middle of the road to shoot him.

Looking at how the article holds up in the CRAAP method, it's clear how fake the story is. There are no identifying qualities for the article, and almost details in the content at all. The only purpose of the article is to get clicks and drive traffic to the website.

There was a statement by the Fort Wayne Police Department stating that the claims were completely fabricated, and Snopes identified it as a false story. This story is just plain fake news trying to clickbait unsuspecting internet surfers.

[defakingnews]

Donald Trump Protester Speaks Out: “I Was Paid $3,500 To Protest Trump’s Rally”

This story is about a 38-year-old Paul Horner who claims to have been paid to protest at Trump's rally in Fountain Hills, Arizona. He claims to have received a Craigslist group request needing actors for a political event and he claims that the payment was made by Hillary Clinton's campaign group due to several emails he received from a group of women known as "Women Are the Future."

According to the CRAAP test, there is minimum credibility to this story, no evidence provided. Checks? Payments made under his name?

The relevance of the article is questionable. What is he trying to put across?

The accuracy or truthfulness is questionable, we need a background check on the person (Horner.) What is his stance on politics?

Authority: you may need to check on other sources for the big issues on supports and protesters getting paid.

[defakingnews]

Actor Bill Murray Announces 2016 Presidential Run

The claim is that Bill Murray, and atheist and politically independent actor is running for president in the 2016 election. The article is satire which is obvious when reading the author's bio at the bottom of the article. Also, the quotes used throughout the article are from sources that would never be used in a real news article.

[defakingnews]

Van Full Of Illegals Shows Up To Vote Clinton At SIX Polling Places, Still Think Voter Fraud Is A Myth

Claim: Democrats are being hypocritical about voter fraud yet they are using it to benefit themselves. The author, “Freedom,” talks about how “Pantsuits McCriminal,” Hillary Clinton, has been overlooking the fraud in order to help her own cause in the polls. They claim that 9 illegals showed up to vote at a polling station with fake ID’s and voter registrations, and DID IT AGAIN without being caught in 3 more cities. Now how the group of “illegals” managed to do that without being stopped is really just baffling and shows how bad this source is.

CRAPP

·         Currency:

o   Around election time

o   No newer articles following this one

o   Not changing at all

·         Relevancy

o   Goes against trump, so supports conservatives

o   Conservatives is intended audience

o   Very simple language

·         Accuracy

o   Comes from a biased conservative named “Freedom”

o   No evidence rather than “it happened”

o   Not been reviewed by anyone else, I don’t even want to read it

·         Authority

o   Little to none, actually DEFINITELY no authority

o   Written by a guy who lives in the south and is against Hillary

o   Probably the stereotypical redneck (with a name like “Freedom”

o   His bio: "Freedom" is a patriot from Arizona who is sick and tired of the Left's socialist agenda for America. A true conservative and Christian, he fights for the Constitution and against the creeping influence of "PC" culture.

·         Purpose

o   To go against Hillary

o   100% clickbait propaganda against Hillary

o   100% bias

o   100% lies

This is all propaganda and disinformation that was only written to go against Hillary and, honestly, made the republican party look worse just by writing it. Which I don’t like, being a republican.

LITERALLY no relevant resources available to follow from this article. It was written for “venting” purposes, that being to go against Hillary and say that she is bad in order to help Trump win the race.

[defakingnews]

African Billionaire Will Give $1 Million To Anyone Who Wants To Leave America if Donald Trump is Elected President

This is a fake news story about an African Billionaire who wants to give $1 million dollars to African Americans who want to move to South Africa if Donald Trump is elected president. According to Snopes, the man in the picture in the article is actually a Nigerian president from the 80s. The billionaire isn’t real. This is disinformation, it isn’t true.

https://empireherald.com/back-to-africa-movement-to-help-blacks-leave-america-if-donald-trump-becomes-president/2/ 

[defakingnews]

Babysitter Discovers “Clown Doll” In Kid’s Room Was A Real Person, Raping The Child At Night

This article is about a babysitter who discovered a rapist dressed as a clown in a young girls room. This article does not have the name of the author listed, any sources, or a publication date. This article is also very unrealistic and contains many spelling and grammatical errors.

[defakingnews]

Daycare Busted Running Toddler Fightclub, Parents Outraged

http://www.celebtricity.com/daycare-busted-running-toddler-fightclub-parents-outraged/

The claim made in this article is that a Daycare owner has been running a fight club in Woodbridge, Virginia.

By following the CRAAP test, I found that the article has no date, so testing currency is impossible. In addition, It is very simplistic and gives no detailed. There is no evidence or sources. The website is a sensationalist yellow journalism page. The article is also extremely poorly written.

On the other hand, the story does have a hint of truth. The Washington Post published an article about this (https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/former-day-care-worker-who-encouraged-kids-to-fight-each-other-is-sentenced/2016/09/30/8927325c-871a-11e6-ac72-a29979381495_story.html?utm_term=.ad2e04078aed).

I would argue this is propaganda that is used to discourage the use of daycares or decrease trust in baby-sitting. 

[defakingnews]

Right when I opened the page I knew right away it wasn’t going to be a reliable source. The Links on the sides were just unrealistic and very inappropriate. Also, just the title itself was unrealistic, and you could just tell it was fake, like what even is a death camp and that just is not something that would occur in America. Also the website itself is a satire. So clearly it is fake just by the website.