Did House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spend $106,000 of your money to get drunk with Hollywood elitists? No, that's not true: The story making the claim was published by a liberal satire website that tries to mislead Trump supporters 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 Daily World Update on November 30, 2019, titled "Nancy Pelosi Spent $106K of Your Money to Get Drunk With Hollywood Elitists" (archived here) which opened:
Nancy Pelosi is waking up this morning with the hangover of a lifetime after throwing a bash in Hollywood -- with taxpayer money. The event was billed as a performance of the Fundamental United Chorus of Kiwanis hosted by the Tradesman's Rights United Municipal Policy. The group's spokesman, Art Tubolls, says the festivities weren't campaign-related, so there's nothing "illegal" going on:
'Nancy just wanted a nice night out with her friends. As Speaker of the House, she's allowed to throw a party here and there. The way we figure it, as long as she doesn't spend more than Trump spends golfing, there's nothing to worry about.'
Included in the cost of the evening were 14 cases of Wild Turkey, 14 cases of Goldshlager's, 10 cases of Hennessey, and a bottle of Frangelico because Nancy 'really likes that French stuff.'
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Nancy Pelosi Spent $106K of Your Money to Get Drunk With Hollywood Elitists
She didn't even bother trying to hide her corruption.
The two organizations cited in the story, the "Fundamental United Chorus of Kiwanis" and the "Tradesman's Rights United Municipal Policy," do not to exist. The listed "spokesperson," Art Tubolls, is actually a "Propagandist for America's Last Line of Defense," according to their Twitter bio.
"America's Last Line of Defense," a network of satire websites which includes Daily World Update, is run by self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair from Maine along with a loose confederation of friends and allies.
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: Supreme Court Can NOT Extend Trump's Term By Up To 3 Years If He's Acquitted In The Senate
- Fake News: Trump Rally Crowd Size In Chicago Did NOT Show Dems Are Turning To Trump
- Fake News: Pelosi Did NOT Demand Doctor Hand Over Trump's Medical Records
- Fake News: Giuliani Did NOT Quietly File Suit Against Ilhan Omar for Blatant Prejudice on Behalf of White House
- Fake News: Nancy Pelosi's Military Budget Committee Did NOT Put 5 Aircraft Carriers Up For Sale
