Buzzfeed released an analysis of the top 50 fake news stories of 2017 which you should definitely read. Many of the stories in the list have been debunked at some point by Lead Stories so there are no surprises there for our regular readers but it is an interesting read nonetheless.
Just for fun we decided to do a quick non-scientific analysis of our own see how we compared to the three top fact checkers used in Buzzfeed's data: Snopes, Politifact and ABC News. We took the top 10 most viral fake news stories from the Buzzfeed list and checked if we had covered them.
- Babysitter transported to hospital after inserting a baby in her vagina
- FBI seizes over 3,000 penises during raid at morgue employee's home
- Charles Manson to be released on parole, to Johnson County, TX
- Police: Chester Bennington Was Murdered
- Morgue employee cremated by mistake while taking a nap
- Angry Woman Cuts Off Man's Penis for Not Making Eye Contact During Sex - TRENDING
- Female Legislators Unveil 'Male Ejaculation Bill' Forbidding The Disposal Of Unused Semen
- President Trump Orders the Execution of Five Turkeys Pardoned by Obama
- Elderly woman accused of training her 65 cats to steal from neighbors
- Couple hospitalized after man gets his head stuck in his wife's vagina
Snopes covered 9 of them while Politifact and ABC News did not write about any of the top ten stories. Lead Stories wrote about 8 of them, including the one Snopes missed ("Angry woman"). Snopes wrote about the two that Lead Stories missed ("unused semen" and "65 cats").
Now let's compare speed on the seven stories that Snopes and Lead Stories both covered:
Fake News: Babysitter NOT Transported To Hospital, Did NOT Insert Baby In Her Vaginahttps://t.co/iWMgYLzQNj#hoax #fakenews #Cincinnati pic.twitter.com/vNcw4dTdJX
-- Lead Stories (@LeadStoriesCom) May 4, 2017
Babysitter Transported to Hospital After Inserting a Baby in Her Vagina? https://t.co/PZ41a7G8Rn
-- snopes.com (@snopes) May 4, 2017
Snopes 0 - 1 Lead Stories
Fake News: FBI Did NOT Seize Over 3,000 Penises During Raid At Morgue Employee Home https://t.co/kkvSaiTUuQ pic.twitter.com/MVcTEDMDyV
-- Lead Stories (@LeadStoriesCom) September 27, 2017
FBI Seizes Over 3,000 Penises During Raid at Morgue Employee's Home? https://t.co/O02RHWdtFZ
-- snopes.com (@snopes) September 28, 2017
Snopes 0 - 2 Lead Stories
Charles Manson is not being released from prison:https://t.co/JVXX2g0kI3
-- snopes.com (@snopes) June 12, 2017
Fake News: Charles Manson NOT To Be Released On Parole To Johnson County TXhttps://t.co/LcJPrRArUk
-- Lead Stories (@LeadStoriesCom) July 16, 2017
#fakenews #hoax #manson #texas pic.twitter.com/bRR1hudeon
Snopes 1 - 2 Lead Stories
Fake News: Police Did NOT Say Chester Bennington Was Murderedhttps://t.co/QpNLXLhcK8 #fakenews #chesterbennigton #ChesterBenningtonRIP pic.twitter.com/azOwzZ9XTz
-- Lead Stories (@LeadStoriesCom) July 21, 2017
Were Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell Murdered to Cover Up a Pedophile Ring? https://t.co/ks94SuT2CD
-- snopes.com (@snopes) July 22, 2017
Snopes 1 - 3 Lead Stories
Fake News: Morgue Employee NOT Cremated by Mistake While Taking a Naphttps://t.co/vhRg53zKLm#hoax #fake #fakenews #morgue #cremated pic.twitter.com/hwnsK2PsjB
-- Lead Stories (@LeadStoriesCom) March 2, 2017
Morgue Employee Cremated by Mistake While Taking a Nap? https://t.co/H0ZPl1gVfK
-- snopes.com (@snopes) March 3, 2017
Snopes 1 - 4 Lead Stories
Did President Trump Reverse President Obama's Turkey Pardons? https://t.co/hHVtqTCCuT
-- snopes.com (@snopes) January 25, 2017
Fake News: President Trump DID NOT Order The Execution Of Five Turkeys Pardoned By Obamahttps://t.co/3OpUEVvyCB#fakenews #satire #turkeys pic.twitter.com/pDIAKC3JSa
-- Lead Stories (@LeadStoriesCom) January 25, 2017
Snopes 2 - 4 Lead Stories
Fake News: Couple NOT Hospitalized After Man Gets His Head Stuck In His Wife's Vaginahttps://t.co/HEWeW00gaC#FakeNews #hoax pic.twitter.com/mr53ddfUXc
-- Lead Stories (@LeadStoriesCom) September 17, 2017
Was a Couple Hospitalized After a Man Got His Head Stuck in His Wife's Vagina? https://t.co/GoOvXFjMia
-- snopes.com (@snopes) September 18, 2017
Final score: Snopes 2 - Lead Stories 5
Not too shabby considering we at Lead Stories have just one active writer (me), a fraction of the budget and we are not even part of Facebook's fact checking program so we don't have access to the list of stories reported as fake by Facebook's user base. We must be doing something right I guess :-)
Best wishes for 2018 and don't get fooled by fake news!