Fake News

Loony tune Pam Geller and numerous right wing sites are breathlessly repeating this story from the right wing Washington Times: Donald Trump may have a point about paid protesters: Job ads running in more than 20 cities offer $2,500 per month for agitators to demonstrate at this week’s presidential inauguration events. Demand Protest, a San Francisco company that bills itself …

The advertiser boycott of Breitbart really has them losing their shit. They write: An anonymous group of left-wing Twitter trolls has convinced the New York State Department of Health to withdraw ads promoting colorectal cancer screening from Breitbart News. The public service announcement, which ran in an advertising space on Breitbart.com read: “We got screened for colon cancer when we …

Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean last night tweeted his approval of a New York Times opinion piece on the continuing advertiser boycott of Breitbart. From the article: In mid-November, a Twitter group called Sleeping Giants became the hub of the new movement. The Giants and their followers have communicated with more than 1,000 companies and nonprofit groups whose …

Mediaite reports: Fox News host Sean Hannity tweeted his enthusiastic agreement Sunday when someone tweeted at him that Americans should work together to “make Russia great again.” Hannity was responding to a tweet from an account called “Donnie L’il Hands,” which he apparently did not realize was mocking him and Donald Trump. Hannity has come under fire in recent days …

The Guardian reports: German media and politicians have warned against an election-year spike in fake news after the rightwing website Breitbart claimed a mob chanting “Allahu Akbar” had set fire to a church in the city of Dortmund on New Year’s Eve. After the report by the US site was widely shared on social media, the city’s police clarified that …

Little Green Footballs reports: Many people have now joined the effort to inform major companies about the racist and misogynist nature of Breitbart “News” and urge them not to advertise at this “alt-right” hate site, and this ad hoc campaign is getting serious results. The number of companies that have now pulled their ads from Breitbart is at 400. That’s …

Via Mediaite: Fox and Friends host Abby Huntsman apologized on-air Friday after sharing a story about food stamp fraud that had no basis in fact. Huntsman’s apology came after she reported on that “food-stamp fraud is at an all-time high… this year, it is estimated $70 million of taxpayer money was wasted on food-stamp fraud.” Huntsman admitted the error today, …

Donald Trump’s de facto publicists at fake news outlet Breitbart are screaming about President Obama’s sanctions on Russia. They write: President Obama issued an executive order on Thursday sanctioning Russian intelligence officials, individuals, and organizations based on as-yet unproven accusations that Russia interfered in the 2016 election by hacking the emails of Democratic Party officials. This action comes as the …

He’s just asking! Brian Tashman reports at Right Wing Watch: Radio conspiracy theorist Alex Jones reacted to the death of Carrie Fisher today by wondering if the late actress was actually murdered by people trying to make money off of her recently released book. Jones, who said that he was only speculating, compared Fisher’s passing to the death of Joan …

Late last month Breitbart called on their millions of readers to boycott Kellogg’s after the cereal giant declined to continue advertising with them. Unsurprisingly, Breitbart’s “advertise with us or else” threat did not sit well with other major brands, virtually all of whom have since abandoned the site. Today Breitbart’s front page contains yet another attack on Kellogg’s, below which …

They just won’t let go. From World Net Daily:  The chief investigator for Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s probe of the validity of the image Barack Obama released as his birth certificate says evidence suggests the involvement of the Hawaiian government in the alleged fabrication. WND reported last week that Arpaio and his chief investigator on the Obama birth certificate issue, Mike …

Mic.com reports: Fox News host Bill O’Reilly went on a white supremacism-laden rant Tuesday night, saying that the effort to abolish the Electoral College is an attempt by “the left” to take away power from the “white establishment.” O’Reilly went on to denounce Democrats for being “reliant on the minority vote and female voters” in their electoral coalition. “The left …

Bloomberg reports: After a campaign season unprecedented in its divisiveness and a transition unparalleled in controversial appointees, Steve Bannon’s selection as chief strategist for President-elect Donald Trump still manages to stand out. Bannon, 63, is an architect of Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton. He’s also a key player in America’s burgeoning ultra-right—sometimes genially labeled “alt-right” but more specifically everything from …

Breitbart is encouraging their readers to sow familial disharmony over the holidays with a mocking Christmas ornament. Here’s the pitch: “We could not offer therapy dogs or cry-ins. That being said, nothing says You’re Precious quite like Breitbart’s first ever Snowflake Tree Ornament. Crafted with love in the USA, these snowflakes will NOT melt, even if the recipients do.” This …

Via Breitbart: Tuesday at a stop on his “Thank You” tour in West Allis, WI, President-elect Donald Trump opened up his appearance by fulfilling a campaign promise regarding the use of “Merry Christmas” as a holiday greeting. “So when I started 18 months ago, I told my first crowd in Wisconsin that we are going to come back here someday …

Brian Tashman reports at Right Wing Watch: In a broadcast posted online yesterday, notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said that the intelligence community’s findings that Russia interfered in the presidential election in order to help Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton amount to nothing but a baseless conspiracy theory. The CIA, according to Jones, plans to use the pretext of …

Breitbart’s continuing attacks on Kellogg’s have rather predictably backfired. Investor Relations reports: The move by many of these large corporations to cancel ad contracts on Breitbart seems to already be hurting the company, as the majority of current ads on the news site are being fed to the site by Google and Taboola, which are third party ad providers, and …

Donald Trump’s favorite conspiracy nut Alex Jones is trying to distance himself from the so-called Pizzagate fake news controversy by deleting his YouTube video in which he accused Hillary Clinton of being involved in a murderous child sex ring. Jones’ action comes after a self-proclaimed “evangelical Christian” fired his assault rifle in the DC pizza shop in an attempt to …

Via Raw Story: Comedian Tina Fey sarcastically dangled the bait at the army of Internet trolls who inhabit Breitbart.com on Wednesday during a speech to a group honoring women working in the entertainment field. “I promised myself I wouldn’t get up here today and talk about the election,” Fey quipped before alluding to the controversy earlier this year over the …

The Hill reports: Hillary Clinton on Thursday decried the spread of fake news online, calling it an “epidemic” that Congress should take action against. “The epidemic of malicious fake news and false propaganda that flooded social media over the past year — it’s now clear the so-called fake news can have real-world consequences,” Clinton said during a speech on Capitol …