Top 5 Fake News Sites To Watch Out For

Ever come across a news item that made you sit back and wonder: “Hmm. Could that possibly be true?”

As more and more people turn to social media (rather than more established sources) to get their news, this happens ever more frequently. Sometimes with good reason.

There’s a sub-class of news websites out there whose purpose is to misrepresent the news with humorous intent, much of the time – but still 100% fake.

Here are five of the best – or most noteworthy, if you prefer.

1. Empire News

Empire News is a satirical and entertainment website, which specializes in fooling people with wordplay, witty infographics and straight-up fake “news” of all kinds. The site uses only invented names in all their stories, except in cases where public figures are being satirized.

Remember the buzz generated on Twitter when news broke that Hollywood icon Betty White dyed? As in, dyed her hair. That was one of theirs. “McDonald’s To Compete With Weight Watchers With New ‘Weight Loss Menu’”, was another.

Recent offerings include:

“Woman Violently Murders Husband After Finding Toilet Seat Left Up”

“Man Wins $1 Million On Lottery Scratch Ticket, Spends It All On More Scratch Tickets”

“World Famous Rockefeller Christmas Tree In NYC Turns Out To Be Artificial”

“BREAKING – North Korea Launches Nuclear Missile Towards The United States”

2. NewsMutiny

“Satire for the wise, news for the dumb,” is the watchword for NewsMutiny, which mashes up world events with funny headlines and brief Associated Press (AP)-style stories on a daily basis.

Like others of its breed, the site is split up into categories like Entertainment, World, Local, Home and Garden, and Advice. Its finance section features a market watch ticker, which lists the Dow Jones and NASDAQ figures as “sad” and “grumpy.”

Typical headlines include:

“Republicans Push to Elect President by Candidate Receiving Least Amount of Votes”

“Man Protesting Death of Man Beaten to Death by Police Beaten to Death by Police”

“Practicing Passive Aggressive Resistance”

“Police: Serial Rapist ‘Obviously Not Too Picky’.”

3. The Borowitz Report

Each day, humorist Andy Borowitz writes a satirical news parody blog dubbed The Borowitz Report. The site was bought by the New Yorker magazine in 2012, and posts brief news stories in Borowitz’ signature style. Stuff like:

“BREAKING: White House Authorizes Search for President’s Mojo”

“Human behavior is no worse than it’s ever been, it’s just now we have camera phones”

“Fox: Obama Seeks Advice on Establishing Monarchy”

“Republicans Accuse Obama of Treating Immigrants Like Humans”

“New Proposal Would Provide Grand Juries with Eyes”

Parent company The New Yorker is a weekly magazine published as an app for tablets and smartphones, available for download through the App Store, Google Play, or Amazon.

Andy Borowitz maintains a Twitter page, which was named the number one Twitter feed in the world by a Time magazine poll in 2011.

4. The Onion

The Onion is a satirical weekly magazine published 52 times a year on Thursdays, by Onion, Inc. Like Empire News, The Onion uses invented names in all its stories, except in cases where public figures are being lampooned.

The Onion Radio News is a daily newscast from The Onion’s award-winning news team. It is available online and at broadcast resolution from the Onion’s satellite news service to radio stations throughout the world.

The site delivers a daily dose of satire in the form of fake news stories accompanied by hilarious Photoshopped images. Stories like:

“Michael Phelps Returns To His Tank At Sea World”

“Increasingly Worried Man Hasn’t Yet Come Across Any Guacamole In Burrito”

“Media Company Looking For Ways To Get Rid Of Veteran 24-Year-Old Employee”

“Critics Worried New CIA Report Puts U.S. At Considerable Risk Of Transparency”

“Michelle Obama Quietly Reassigned To Department Of Agriculture After Butting Heads With President”

“World’s Oldest Woman Just Pleased Every Other Human On Earth When She Was Born Now Dead”

5. The Spoof

Instead of a paid staff of funny writers, satirical news site The Spoof depends on stories submitted by its own readers to provide content. Despite (or perhaps because of) this, The Spoof is one of the leading satire newspapers on the internet.

An eclectic mix of current affairs, sports, science, gossip, and entertainment news, all material on The Spoof is submitted online with the emphasis on simple good humor writing.

“Find Jimmy Hoffa Craze Causing Shovel Shortage in America”, and

“No Such Thing As Electricity – latest conspiracy theory”

are typical examples.

Heed the Signs

Satirical US website Cracked offers these tell-tale signs of a fake news story on the web:

It’s World-Changing News from Some Obscure Website.

It Springs From a UK Tabloid.

It’s Predicting Some Future Disaster by a Strangely Specific Date.

It’s a Poll, Disguised as a News Story, or

It’s About a Miracle Cure for Cancer, Obesity, or Clean Energy.

In the end, it all boils down to one of the cardinal rules of responsible journalism: “Always Verify Your Sources”.

And be careful who you share those news stories with. Otherwise, you run the risk of appearing “uninformed”. To put it mildly.

You have been warned…