Is Michael Jordan running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican? Not, that's not true: This is a fake claim originally made by a website that is part of a network that runs satirical stories. It was copied from the satirical site with no mention of satire. This creates clickbait by fooling people who want to read about the legendary basketball player. Jordan is not a candidate.
This story, originally run by the satirical site wearethellod.com, is found in an article published by Daily News Updates on December 7, 2019, titled "Michael Jordan is Running for US Senate as a Republican" (archived here) which opened:
Michael Jordan has been ruffling Democrat feathers ever since he came out in support of veterans over Colin Kaepernick. He left the Board of Directors of Nike, taking his anti-gravity juice for Air Jordans with him. The company lost $4 billion.
Less than a month ago, Jordan changed his party affiliation. Democrats called him a racist.
Now, to ice the cake of Democrat shame, Jordan will be running for the Senate in 2020 -- as a Republican.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Michael Jordan is Running for US Senate as a Republican - Daily News Updates
The story, which is clearly marked as satire on the original site where it was posted, claims:
He'll run against sitting Democrat Senator Stuart Boll. Boll says he's not concerned now that Jordan has shown his true colors:
No such sitting Democratic senator exists. Yet the story, which has been ripped off an stripped of all satirical references when republished on Daily News Updates, continues:
Jordan is far too classy to respond. He did release a picture of himself wearing his famous Confederate Flag boxer shorts under his basketball uniform at NCU. The caption was "Heritage Not Hate." Several historians reminded him that his family was owned by southerners, which is not the same thing as being a southerner. The irony was lost somehow.
This is great news for a party the Democrats call racist. It is a scientific fact that a party with a single black person in it cannot be racist. Period. Please get out there and cast your vote for Jordan in 2020, no matter what state you're from.
All of ALLOD's sites comes with some clear satire disclaimer, such as:
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, bustatroll.org or bebest.website. Sometimes he is also known under his nickname "Busta Troll".
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.
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 fake news.
The story, already debunked by other outlets but still making its way on the internet, was mentioned by the site heavy.com, which wrote:
Over the years, Michael Jordan has been very circumspect about his political and social beliefs, choosing to largely stay out of political debates. However, he's given thousands of dollars over the years to Democratic organizations, as documented by the federal campaign donation website, which lists a Michael J. Jordan as a donor, saying he is a majority owner in the Charlotte Bobcats.
Jordan bought the Bobcats in 2010. His full name is Michael Jeffrey Jordan. The site lists 2012 donations by the Michael J. Jordan who is majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats to the Democratic Executive Committee of Florida; the Democratic Party of Virginia; the Democratic National Committee; the Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, and Colorado Democratic Parties. Other donations under the name Michael Jordan are impossible to prove because they don't list occupation.
