Are armor units at Fort Riley, Fort Hood, and Fort Stewart starting to mobilize to the border of Iran? No, that's not true: The claim was posted by a prank site that allows anyone to create a fake story. It is not true.
The story originated from an article published by Channel45News.com on January 6, 2020 titled "Fort Riley, Fort hood, and Fort Stewart to start mobilizing armor units to the border of Iran!" (archived here) which opened:
In wake of rising tensions in the Middle East, all Armor units from these three Army bases are set to be deploying in preparation for what could end up being world war 3!
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Fort Riley, Fort hood, and Fort Stewart to start mobilizing armor units to the border of Iran! - Channel 45 News
In wake of rising tensions in the Middle East, all Armor units from these three Army bases are set to be deploying in preparation for what could end up being world war 3!
The site is part of a network of prank sites operated by Korry Scherer from Milwaukee, WI. according to WHOIS data. The site lets visitors create their own realistic looking fake news stories to prank friends and family.
The site seems to be part of a network of similar sites. So far we've found these, but there may be others:
- channel22news.com
- channel23news.com
- channel24news.com
- channel28news.com
- channel33news.com
- channel34news.com
- channel40news.com
- channel45news.com
- channel46news.com
The sites all come with disclaimers at the bottom of each prank:
We do NOT support FAKE NEWS!!! This is a Prank website that is intended for Fun. Bullying, Violent Threats or posts that Violate Public Order are NOT permitted on this Website.
NewsGuard, a company that uses trained journalist to rank the reliability of websites, describes channel45news.com as:
A website that lets users make up stories and headlines that mimic real news and share them on social media.
According to NewsGuard the site does not maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability. Read their full assessment here.
We wrote about channel45news.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: 2ND Marine Division NOT Recalling IRR Marines
- Fake News: Nude Beach NOT Coming to Marshall County on Lake Texoma
- Fake News: NO Estimated 90,000 Cases of HIV in Vanderburgh County
- Fake News: Meth NOT To Be Legalized In Haralson County, Georgia
- Fake News: George R.R. Martin NOT Dead After Massive Heart Attack
