Several fake news websites have been posting the same bizarre article repeatedly over the past few weeks, titled "BREAKING: Charges Filed Against Meryl Streep For Soliciting Violence After Kids Throw Rocks At Trump". It opens in a relatively normal way:
Six Middle School Kids from Brooklyn were picked up on 5th Ave in Manhattan today after they were caught throwing rocks at Trump Tower. The kids, 2 boys and 4 girls, said they were just doing what Meryl Streep told them to at the Golden Globes and fighting back against Trump. They couldn't elaborate and were released to their parents with no charges filed.
The part were Streep gets involved follows:
The charges, however, won't go without a home. Meryl Streep, who prosecutors are saying incited violence with her hateful, radical speech about free press and inevitable suffering under a Donald Trump presidency, will be charged with contributing to the delinquency of minors, inciting violence and possibly slander if they can prove her intentions were to cost Donald Trump any of his income.
Okay, weird English and legal jargon. But who knows, lawyers have tried crazier things, right? But then the story goes completely off the rails:
The warrant, which was sworn by the Honorable Judge Michagobon Mahela Hula Jasperfield, is being transported across the country as we speak, bound for an extradition hearing in Los Angeles. Streep, who knows about her woes, says she won't comply and return to New York unless a judge from a non-extradition country orders her to. New York has filed papers with Ecuador to expedite the process.
That's just nonsense. Strangely enough no other fact checking website like Snopes has debunked the story yet. Maybe because it is just too silly. Or maybe somebody is running an experiment to see if people will share a nonsense article on social media anyway if the title and introduction are vaguely plausible and confirm their desires and prejudices. Looking at the Trendolizer graph at the end of this article we'd say it is working...
