Did the referee named Jerry Noonan eject four players at a Miami Dolphins game for kneeling during the national anthem? No, that's not true: the story was made up by a liberal satire website that specifically designs its articles to cause conservatives and Trump supporters to become angry so they will share them without checking if they are actually real. Fans of the site then mock them for that. The whole story is not real.
The story originated from an article published by America's Last Line of Defense on September 16, 2018 titled "BREAKING: Ref Gets in the Game-Ejects 4 Kneeling Players" (archived here) which opened:
The NFL has layers of rules and a dozen people to enforce them off the field. On game day, however, the referee is in charge. According to the NFL rulebook, Once the referee arrives on the playing field, in uniform, he is in control. That includes the playing of the National Anthem.
Immediately after the song in Miami this afternoon, Referee Jerry Noonan threw two players from the Miami Dolphins off the field, citing "multiple counts of unsportsmanlike conduct." When asked about his motives, Noonan told reporters:
" I don't care what reason they think they have. I was a Marine. On my field, you will stand during the National Anthem. If not, I will eject you if you've ever done it before."
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail so some of them might have believed it:
BREAKING: Ref Gets in the Game-Ejects 4 Kneeling Players
They're not gonna keep getting away with it.
The picture used to illustrate the hoax article is actually from January 4, 2018:
Dolphins coach: Landry brawl 'embarrassing'
DAVIE, Fla. -- Jarvis Landry's return to the Miami Dolphins in 2018 looked a little less likely Wednesday after coach Adam Gase delivered a stinging critique of the excitable receiver's behavior in the season finale. Landry and teammate Kenyan Drake were ejected in the fourth quarter of Sunday's loss to the Buffalo Bills.
The word 'includes' in the story linked to a Google translation of the phrase "No it doesn't. Don't be stupid.". In addition there was a notice in the header of the site that said "Information you probably shouldn't trust." and the article was posted in a category named "goats, Racism, Satire, You'll Only See It Here. For a Reason."
If all those hints weren't enough the site also 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.
All that didn't stop at least one Macedonian fake news site from copying the story verbatim without the warnings or disclaimers.
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, including potatriotpost.us, dailyworldupdate.us and nofakenewsonline.us. Sometimes he is also known under his nickname "Busta Troll". A second man working on the sites is John Prager as revealed in this earlier story we wrote.
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.
NewsGuard, a company that uses trained journalist to rank the reliability of websites, describes trumpbetrayed.us as:
A website claiming to be satirical that publishes fabricated stories, run by Christopher Blair, a known purveyor of disinformation, that published fake stories about Senator John McCain after he passed away.
According to NewsGuard the site does not maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability. Read their full assessment here.
We wrote about trumpbetrayed.us before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Crazed Liberal Burning Trump Signs Did NOT Cause Massachusetts Explosions
- Fake News: NC Clerk Did NOT Refuse To Sell Gas To Man Fleeing Hurricane Over Trump Bumper Sticker
- Fake News: Patriot Volunteers Did NOT Arrive To Guard Hurricane Areas From Looting Thugs
- Fake News: 5,000 People Did NOT Dump Shoes In Front Of Nike Headquarters
- Fake News: Nike Did NOT Fire Colin Kaepernick After Arrest (Which Did NOT Happen Either)
