Was Anthony Bourdain killed by Clinton operatives according to investigators? No, that's not true: no actual evidence for this claim has been uncovered so far and the site making the accusation habitually takes bits and pieces from real news articles and then adds an invented claim to the headline and first paragraph in order to drive more traffic and make more money through advertising.
The story originated from an article published by YourNewsWire on June 10, 2018 titled "Investigators: Anthony Bourdain Was Killed By Clinton Operatives" (archived here) which opened:
Anthony Bourdain had been harassed and threatened by Hillary Clinton operatives just weeks before he was found dead in an apparent "suicide."
According to investigators, Mr. Bourdain was planning to expose pedophile rings connected to Hollywood and D.C. shortly before his death.
His body found Friday after reportedly hanging himself. He was just 61 years old.
The only "evidence" the site provides is a tweet from Bourdain in which he claims to have been on the receiving end of Hillary Clinton "operatives".
..and I am in no way an HRC fan. I've been on the receiving end of her operatives' wrath. And it ain't fun,
-- Anthony Bourdain (@Bourdain) May 2, 2018
While that may count as "motive" it certainly wouldn't be enough for a conviction in a court of law. That would require far more evidence (like video, fingerprints, phone records, wiretaps, signed confessions...), something the unnamed "investigators" from the article don't provide.
Bottom line: one tweet and vague claims by anonymous "investigators" is not enough to convict someone for murder.
YourNewsWire has published several hoaxes and fake news articles in the past so anything they write or publish should be taken with a large grain of salt. Their Facebook page "The People's Voice" recently lost its verification checkmark according to a report from MMFA.
The Terms of Use of the site also make it clear they don't really stand behind the accuracy of any of their reporting:
THE PEOPLE'S VOICE, INC. AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, TIMELINESS, AND ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS CONTAINED ON THE SITE FOR ANY PURPOSE.
The site was profiled in the Hollywood reporter where it was described as:
Your News Wire, a 3-year-old website of murky facts and slippery spin, is published by Sean Adl-Tabatabai and Sinclair Treadway -- a Bernie Sanders supporter in 2016 -- out of an apartment in L.A.'s historic El Royale.
RationalWiki described it as:
YourNewsWire (styled as YourNewsWire.com[1]) is an Los Angeles-based clickbait fake news website known for disseminating conspiracy theories and misleading information, contrary to its claimed motto ("News. Truth. Unfiltered").[1]
A while ago we also reported that YourNewsWire had rebranded itself as NewsPunch by changing its domain name in an apparent effort to evade filtering/blocking. It appears the site has changed back to it's old name in the mean time but you can still see the NewsPunch name in the contact email address in the footer.
We wrote about yournewswire.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Melinda Gates Did NOT Say We Must Discriminate Against All White People
- Fake News: British School Boys Must NOT Wear 'Gender-Neutral' Skirts
- Fake News: Pope Francis Did NOT Order White Women To Breed With Muslims
- Fake News: Trump NOT Set To Legalize Medical Marijuana In All 50 States
- Fake News: CNN NOT Raided By FCC For Deceiving American Public
