Did Rudy Giuliani quietly files a lawsuit against Ilhan Omar for 'Blatant Prejudice' on behalf of the White House? No, that's not true. The story was published by a liberal satire website that tries to mislead 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 (archived here) where it was published by Daily World Update on May 17, 2019 under the title "Giuliani Quietly Files Suit Against Ilhan Omar for 'Blatant Prejudice' on Behalf of White House". It opened:
Rudy Giuliani has filed suit in Minnesota's Superior Federal Court that accuses Congresswoman Omar of "blatant prejudice against the Commonwealth, bordering on treason." The suit, filed on behalf of the White House in the name of the citizens of Minnesota, asks that she be relieved of her duties and reprimanded for her actions.
According to an official affidavit:
"Ms. Omar is guilty of not abiding by our nation's Christian way of life and thinking. By praising a false God who wants to harm us, she has proven she's not worthy of the office. By taking her oath on a false God's book, she has nullified that already. The 1952 law is clear and valid."
There is no such thing as the "Superior Federal Court" in Minnesota and the story was filed under a category that read "Imaginary Giuliani Lawsuits". In addition to that there were several satire labels, logos and disclaimers on the site that were quite prominently visible in the header of the article.
That didn't stop several foreign-run fake news websites from copying the article in order to spread it around in various Facebook groups where they tried to make people believe it was true so they could make some money through the ads on their sites.
The site that originally published the story 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 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: Nancy Pelosi's Military Budget Committee Did NOT Put 5 Aircraft Carriers Up For Sale
- Fake News: NO Ocasio-Cortez Bill Requires Seniors to Renew Driver's Licenses Monthly
- Fake News: NO Leading Democrats Facing Indictment for Orchestrating a Coup d'etat
- Fake News: Kamala Harris Did NOT Say "Our Military Are Soulless Cowards. Their Budget Must Be Cut."
- Fake News: NO FBI Surveillance, Malia Obama NOT Seen Leaving Antifa Meeting In Baltimore
