Did Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi stop House Bill BT1138 to make Engish the official language of the U.S.? No, that's not true. The story was published by a liberal satire website that tries to fool Trump supporters and Republicans into sharing made up stories that are clearly marked as satire when you actually click them. Articles from the site are frequently copied by foreign-run fake news websites. The people liking and sharing these stories are enriching foreign website operators (or a liberal from Maine) via the ad revenue generated with the content which is probably not what they expected or wanted.
The story originated from an article published by BustaTroll.org on July 17, 2019 titled "Pelosi Stops Bill to Make English the Official Language of the U.S." (archived here) which opened:
When it comes to legislating, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi certainly seems to be a giant turtle in the ointment. Written by Republican Senator Owen Humperlamp of South Dakota, house bill BT1138 would have legally and officially cemented English as the recognized language of the United States of America. It would have, until Pelosi stopped it without a second thought this afternoon using her Speakership veto authority. The bill is now effectively deader than Lavoy Finicum.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Pelosi Stops Bill to Make English the Official Language of the U.S.
What a loser!
The story was posted in the category "Pelosi Satire with Chile Sauce and Liquid Cheese" and there is no "Senator Owen Humperlamp of South Dakota" (the current senators for South Dakota are Mike Rounds and John Thune).
In addition, a senator would not introduce a House Bill (that would be a Senate Bill) and it would not have a citation that started with BT but with an S in that case.
U.S. Senate: How to Find Bill Numbers
How to Find Bill Numbers
U.S. Senate: Key to Legislative Citations
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The site BustaTroll.org 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.
Here is a video of Blair explaining how his process works:
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 bustatroll.org as:
A site that publishes false stories and hoaxes that are often mistaken for real news, part of a network named America's Last Line of Defense 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 bustatroll.org before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Michael Jordan Did NOT Leave 'Kaepernick's Nike', Did NOT Take Air Jordans With Him
- Fake News: Michael Jordan Did NOT Rip Up His Democrat Party Card
- Fake News: NO Pelosi Letter to Iran: 'Trump Will Be Out By Next Year'
- Fake News: Malia Obama Did NOT Cash $1.2 million 'Tax Refund' Check
- Fake News: 14 State Attorney Generals Did NOT Step Forward Demanding Indictments Against Clinton and Obama
