The notoriously satirical fake news website The Last Line of Defense was quick to react to current events with an article titled "BREAKING: President Trump Offers Bill O'Reilly A Job" posted just hours after the talkshow host won't be returning to Fox News after allegations of sexual misconduct. The false article opened:
Following the firing of Bill O'Reilly because spineless Fox won't stand behind their employees if it will cost them money, President Trump has stepped up and offered him a job in the White House Media Office. The exact nature of the job is still unknown but according to the office's director, O'Reilly is a well-known and well-respected face in American media who has a bright future in government.
The story is completely made up and has no basis in truth at all.
The Resistance: The Last Line of Defense is a fake news website that carries following disclaimer on its about page:
DISCLAIMER: The Resistance may include information from sources that may or may not be reliable and facts that don't necessarily exist. All articles should be considered satirical and any and all quotes attributed to actual people complete and total baloney. Pictures that represent actual people should be considered altered and not in any way real.
The site also tends to include nonsensical phrases or insults hints in the list of "categories" under the article titles:
According to Buzzfeed the site was originally meant to troll conservatives with over the top satirical articles but now appears to be used as a 'source' by a large network of actual fake news sites (not related to the original creator) that all repost the same articles mentioning it as the source but not acknowlediging the satire disclaimer. This causes many people to believe the fake stories especially when they are being shared on social media where all context is removed and only the title, image and description remain. Sites in the network appear to include:
- American News
- Newsbreakshere
- Amposts
- Conservative Info corner
- Conservative Army
- Open Magazines
- True Trumpers
- Blue Vision News
- Conservative Flash News
- Red Country
- Newsfeedhunter
We expect the story to start turning up on these sites shortly. As you can see in the Trendolizer graph at the end of this article the satirical version is already making its way around on social media. If you notice anyone spreading it around you can help by pointing them to this article here because nobody likes being fooled fake news.
