Did actor and conservative commentator James Woods pass away? No, that's not true: his obituary was published by a new liberal satire website run by Christopher Blair on which he is planning to fake kill many more people in the near future. The story is not real, Woods is alive.
The story was the first one the first one to be published on a new site named Conservative Tears, on December 16, 2018 under the title "Celebrating James Woods-He Loved his Country and his President" (archived here) which opened:
James Woods has left our earth far too early. At the ripe age of 76, Woods was just getting started. He was planning a new series with Jon Voight, Tim Allen, and Rush Limbaugh. They were gonna play four kooky guys who knocked over a liquor store. When he heard that Woods had passed late last night, Limbaugh said he would make the show happen in James Woods' honor:
"The one thing James would have wanted was for the three of us left behind to continue with our contracts and get paid. The show itself is mediocre, especially without james, but we have a fiduciary obligation to honor the memory of this great man."
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail so they might have thought he was really dead:
Celebrating James Woods-He Loved his Country and his President
James Woods has left our earth far too early. At the ripe age of 76, Woods was just getting started. He was planning a new series with Jon Voight, Tim Allen, and Rush Limbaugh. They were gonna play...
But no official announcement was made anywhere else and Woods' Twitter account made no mention of his passing. It did show activity 15 hours ago although it was with a post with a cemetary theme:
Trump joins Wreaths Across America in laying wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery https://t.co/nhMY0AkLDa
-- James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) December 16, 2018
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, including wearethellod.com and bebest.website. 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.
Contacted by Lead Stories Blair confirmed the new site was indeed his and he was planning to do more death hoaxes on it:
I'm going to kill many people, yes. They don't necessarily need to be alive to be considered. It should be silly amounts of fun.
Blair and his operation were profiled by the Washington Post on November 17, 2018 by Eli Saslow:
'Nothing on this page is real': How lies become truth in online America
November 17 The only light in the house came from the glow of three computer monitors, and Christopher Blair, 46, sat down at a keyboard and started to type. His wife had left for work and his children were on their way to school, but waiting online was his other community, an unreality where nothing was exactly as it seemed.
If you are interested in learning more about Blair and the history of his sites, here is something to get you started:
The Ultimate Christopher Blair and America's Last Line of Defense Reading List | Lead Stories
STORY UPDATED: check for updates below. Yesterday Eli Saslow at the Washington Post wrote a fantastic article about Christopher Blair, a man from Maine who has been trolling conservatives and Trump supporters online for years and occasionally even made a living out of it.
