Was Scott Baio killed in a freak accident? Nope, those rumors come from a satirical website set up to troll gullible conservatives and Republicans.
The story originated in an article published by The Last Line of Defense on March 25, 2018 titled "Actor Scott Baio, Killed in Freak Accident" (archived here) which opened:
The celebrated thespian and former heartthrob, who recently reinvented himself by becoming a conservative political activist and ardent Trump-supporter and apologist, has passed away. His body was found late Saturday night in his private den by his commonlaw husband and fellow actor, Willie Aames. Baio was 57.
Local police are working with Aames to determine the cause of Mr. Baio's death, which appears to have been accidental. The diminutive star of "Joanie Loves Chachi" was also an amateur biologist, and his den had been converted into what Aames described as the : "Chach-Lab." The "Bibleman" actor spoke briefly to LLOD'S Dead Celebrity Correspondent Jackson Bowman
Only ten months ago the site already "killed" Baio in a different death hoax involving a plane crash (before they changed their domain name from thelastlineofdefense.org to thelastlineofdefense.online after Facebook had banned sharing links to it on the platform).
We wrote about thelastlineofdefense.online before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Government Did NOT Confirm All UK schoolchildren Must Learn Arabic Numerals (Only Now...)
- Fake News: Gay Pornstar Did NOT Come Forward With Pence Accusations
- Fake News: Latest Dead Body NOT Tied To The Clintons, Did NOT Turn Up Valuable Evidence
- Fake News: Charles Schumer Did NOT Receive $500k Donation From Pro-Illegal Alien Group Just Before Vote
- Fake News: Muslim Waitress Did NOT Refuse To Seat 27-Person Church Group Because 'Religious Freedom'
The site comes with a clear satire disclaimer at the bottom of each article:
sat·ire ~ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, OR ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
If you disagree with the definition of satire or have decided it is synonymous with "comedy," you should really just move along.
The owner and main writer of the site is self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair, a man from Maine who has made it his full time job to troll gullible conservatives and Trump supporters into liking and sharing his articles. He runs several other websites such as ladiesofliberty.net, shareotonin.com and dailyworldupdate.com. Sometimes he is also known under his nickname "Busta Troll". He has at least one accomplice who writes under the pen names "Freedom", "Captain Jellypants", "Butch Mannington" or "Captain Buck Atlantis".
Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites who often omit the satire disclaimer and any other hints the stories are fake. Blair has tried to get these sites shut down in the past but new ones keep cropping up and he keeps knocking them down.
If you see one of his stories on a site that does not contain a satire disclaimer, assume it is fake news. If you do see the satire disclaimer it is of course also fake news.
