fake news

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Cops Use 'Fake News' in Sting Aimed at Gang

Police told press they captured two men in order to protect them from hit men

(Newser) - Police investigating a notorious gang in a city on California's central coast issued a fake press release that the chief credited with saving two men by deceiving gang members who wanted to kill them, but the ruse was criticized by news organizations who reported it as fact, the AP...

200 Sites Peddled Fake Election News From Russia
200 Sites Peddled Fake
Election News From Russia
new report
Nov 25, 2016 11:48 AM CST

200 Sites Peddled Fake Election News From Russia

'It was like Russia was running a super PAC for Trump's campaign'

(Newser) - Some of the anti-Hillary Clinton news stories that popped up in your social media feeds during the election campaign may have been put there by Russia. That's the conclusion of independent propaganda research group PropOrNot, which provided its report to the Washington Post . PropOrNot found more than 200 websites,...

2 Different Looks at How Bogus News Proliferates

Creators of one website call themselves the 'new yellow journalists'

(Newser) - With the controversy over fake or deliberately misleading viral stories making headlines, the Washington Post and the New York Times each have interesting features on the topic:
  • The Post profiles two twentysomethings who were unemployed restaurant workers six months ago but have since struck it rich by creating the fast-growing
...

Fake Election Stories Did Better Than Real Ones on Facebook

Made-up news outperformed actual news in final months

(Newser) - No, the pope didn't endorse Donald Trump, and, no, Hillary Clinton didn't sell weapons to ISIS. But those fake stories and others like them spread more widely on Facebook than actual news stories before the election, a new BuzzFeed analysis reveals. Specifically, the top 20 fake election stories...

Google, Facebook Crack Down on Fake News

It just got harder to place advertising on phony content on the 2 platforms

(Newser) - Mark Zuckerberg says fake news on Facebook didn't help tip the election in Donald Trump's favor, but that hasn't stopped the site, along with Google, from starting to address the issue. Although they're not directly taking on the fake news sites themselves, the two platforms are...

Zuckerberg: Fake News on Facebook Didn't Impact Election

Says anyone who claims that has 'profound lack of empathy'

(Newser) - Some think the shady political memes, questionable quotes, and links to eyebrow-raising stories that proliferated on social media throughout the election may have had a significant impact on the actual outcome of the election. Except for someone who happens to know social media pretty well. "Personally I think...

Writing Fake News About Justin Trudeau Is Very Profitable

2 Canadian teens are cashing in on Internet's apparent thirst for satire about PM

(Newser) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is hot stuff . At least, that's what two teens in Canada who'd been looking for ways to make quick money building websites concluded after they started the satire site Hot Global News ."This is where it’s at: Justin Trudeau," Yaman...

That Crazy Viral Video You Saw Was Actually Made by This Firm

Australian company says part of project was publicly funded

(Newser) - The numbers are remarkable, as tallied by the Guardian : Eight viral videos published to YouTube over the past couple years were seen in 180 countries more than 205 million times, totaling 164 years of viewing time on YouTube alone and amassing half a million comments and almost 2 million likes....

Ashley Madison Punked Public With Fake Female CEOs

The women were paid by the interview to be company spokesmodels

(Newser) - At least three women were hired by Ashley Madison parent company Avid Life Media to pose as the presidents and CEOs of sister sites and were paid per interview. So reports the Financial Post in an exclusive investigation into the "trove of Avid Life’s corporate emails" that were...

Scholars Can't Get Enough Colbert

Fake news inspires wealth of academic writing, courses

(Newser) - Stephen Colbert is good for more than just a few laughs; in fact, some scholars wonder if he's "America's Socrates." As a result, the Colbert Report has sparked its own mini-discipline in academia, the Washington Post reports. (Writer Paul Farhi pokes a little fun at the...

Balloon Boy Is What's Wrong With Cable News
Balloon Boy Is What's Wrong With Cable News
OPINION
Oct 16, 2009 1:50 PM CDT

Balloon Boy Is What's Wrong With Cable News

Popular stories don't need to take up 100% of channels' airtime

(Newser) - The "balloon boy" non-story was just the latest example of how ridiculous cable news has become, writes Alan Sepinwall. With a war raging in Afghanistan, a jobless “recovery,” and a complex ongoing health care debate, the "news" networks spend hours on nothing at all. The problem...

How Comedy Turned Serious
 How Comedy Turned Serious 
ANALYSIS
Nov 29, 2008 7:53 AM CST

How Comedy Turned Serious

A funny thing happened on the way to the election—politics and comedy swapped roles

(Newser) - Politics and comedy are trading places, Lee Siegel writes in the Wall Street Journal, as the antics of politicians get more outlandish and comics are increasingly the people speaking truth to power. Fake newsmen like Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert, with their stern commentary, lean more towards the "dark,...

Colbert Wraps Early Xmas Special

Stewart, Costello, Nelson will join holiday sing-a-long

(Newser) - Christmas is ready early for fake-news fans, E! Online reports. Stephen Colbert's musical holiday special is already in the can and will air November 23. Jon Stewart, Toby Keith, Willie Nelson, and Elvis Costello will be among the stars joining Colbert in crooning holiday-themed favorites including Hanukkah and Little Dealer ...

Is Apple Trying to Silence Fake Steve Jobs?

Or is this just core satire by the popular spoof blog?

(Newser) - Is Apple trying to shut down Fake Steve Jobs? Real Steve Jobs has said he finds his impersonator’s satirical blog amusing, but now Fake Steve writes that Apple has offered him $500,000 to quit, at one point threatening to sue him if he declined. FSJ stood on principle...

IAC Gets Into Fake News Biz
IAC Gets Into Fake News Biz
Nov 9, 2007 8:58 AM CST

IAC Gets Into Fake News Biz

Site, launching today, targets youth with comedy, viral videos

(Newser) - Barry Diller's InterActiveCorp ventures into the fake news business today with the launch of its new satire website, 23/6. The site, produced in partnership with the Huffington Post, joins a number of recent efforts to combine comedy with current events a la "The Daily Show": the Onion's Onion News...

Alert the Aliens: Weekly World News Dead at 28

Not even Elvis can save iconic tabloid from lagging print industry

(Newser) - For 28 years, it was the “world’s most reliable newspaper,” replete with stories of Elvis sightings, alien babies, and dwarf-eating dieters. But the Weekly World News is no more. The black-and-white publication, known for its loose headlines and even looser facts, will publish its final print edition...

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