Was Malia Obama arrested again? No, that's not true: she was never arrested a first time either and the whole thing was made up by a liberal satire website that tries to trick gullible conservatives into sharling, liking and commenting on made up stories so fans of the site can mock them online, claiming this will teach them something about not trusting any old site online.
The story originated from an article published by Daily World update on May 29, 2019 titled "Malia Obama Arrested Again, Complete Media Blackout" (archived here) which opened:
The Obama family is royalty as far as the liberal media is concerned. Not only did they not mention Malia Obama's arrest in 2016 for providing her little sister's Girl Scout troop with "enough whip-its to drop a team of well-kept alpacas,", but they failed to report Malia Obama's bloogie arrest a month ago as well. It's almost like you can't report on anything that may or may not have happened just because there aren't enough "sources."
Last month, Malia was busted by campus security at Harvard as she and a friend were caught using a "white, powdery substance" in the women's shower room. The family's lawyer got them off because the powder, while technically "talcum," wasn't enough of an actual drug to charge them with, so we may never know what they were carrying since they were never strip-searched.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Malia Obama Arrested Again, Complete Media Blackout
The truth is right in front of you.
The story was published under the category "Malia Obama's Satirical Criminal Tendencies" and it contains several hints in the body text that indicate it isn't true.
The site that originally is part of the "America's Last Line of Defense" network of satire websites run byself-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair from Maine along with a loose confederation of friends and allies. Blair has been in a feud with fact checking website Snopes for some time now and has also criticized other fact checkers in the past who labeled his work "fake news" instead of satire. In reaction to this he has recently rebranded all his active websites and Facebook pages so they carry extremely visible disclaimers everywhere.
Every site in the network has an about page that reads (in part):
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with "comedy":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.Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
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. At least one site has already copied this story but we expect others to follow in the future:
Malia Obama Arrested Again, Complete Media Blackout
The Obama family is royalty as far as the liberal media is concerned. Not only did they not mention Malia Obama's arrest in 2016 for providing her little sister's Girl Scout troop with "enough whip-its to drop a team of well-kept alpacas,", but they failed to report Malia Obama's bloogie arrest a month ago as [...]
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.
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 dailyworldupdate.us as:
A news site that publishes false stories and hoaxes that are often mistaken for real news. The site is part of a network run by hoax perpetrator Christopher Blair.
According to NewsGuard the site does not maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability. Read their full assessment here.
We wrote about dailyworldupdate.us before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Governor's Conference Did NOT Vote 32-18 to Impeach Nancy Pelosi
- Fake News: Pelosi Did NOT Insult Melania, Did NOT Call Her 'The Hired Help Wife'
- Fake News: Ocasio-Cortez And Omar Did NOT Vow To Remove Senior's 'Entitlements', Social Security/Medicare
- Fake News: Ocasio-Cortez Does NOT Want to Take Guns Away From Cops
- Fake News: Pelosi's Office Did NOT Spend More on Alcohol Last Year Than Food
