A running recap of some of the more popular fake stories floating around the internet this week.
Fake This Week
Donald Trump didn’t admit to being an atheist in 1989. A meme in heavy circulation suggests that Donald Trump went on Phil Donahue’s show back in 1989 and claimed that his high intelligence made him an atheist. “I have a really high IQ, Phil, I mean, c’mon. It’s impossible for me not to be Atheist,” the meme writes, with an attribution of 1989. Trump didn’t appear on Donahue in 1989, and the screenshot of Trump used in the meme was taken from his 1988 appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show.
Yet another fake Trump quote going around this week. pic.twitter.com/Eyt9pc9tkl
— Waffles At Noon (@wafflesatnoon) March 3, 2016
Fake stories about celebrities moving to small towns. A new fake news site called The McKenzie Post has appeared on the scene, and has published a set of silly articles which suggest that several celebrities are moving to small towns. Such false writings include that of Leonardo DiCaprio moving to Woodstock, Illinois; Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie moving to Berea, Kentucky; or Justin Bieber moving to Sandy, Oregon. There are multiple articles for each celebrity, so you may find the city listed is different than that above. The Google results below, for example, show three different articles for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
Rob Zombie wasn’t kicked out of the Oscars. You may have seen a graphic floating around social media which claims that security at the Oscars tackled a homeless man and ejected him, only to later discover it was none other than rocker Rob Zombie. The story, however, is completely fake.
ICYMI: Fake news making the rounds. pic.twitter.com/5FSMO19Unr
— Waffles At Noon (@wafflesatnoon) March 1, 2016
A retired postman didn’t father over 1,300 illegitimate children. Coming from one of the usual suspects, World News Daily Report, we have a completely bogus story that DNA tests proved that an 87-year old postman was proven to have over 1,300 illegitimate children. The website which published this false story is known to produce fake and outlandish articles which spark knee-jerk sharing by those who don’t fact-check the source.
More fake news making the rounds today. pic.twitter.com/gsB8RPZ7oL
— Waffles At Noon (@wafflesatnoon) March 1, 2016