Was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi caught on tape offering bribes for impeachment votes against Trump? No, that's not true: This is a work of satire from a website that trolls conservative. It is not true. It has been stolen from that website and republished without the satire labels.
The story originated from an article published by Tatersgonnatate.com on December 15, 2019 titled "Caught On Tape: Pelosi Exposed Offering Bribes For Votes Against Trump" (archived here) which opened:
The House will vote on the articles of impeachment before the President next week but the passing of the motion is far from a sure thing. The Republican representatives are sure to vote against and many of the Democrats are also expressing doubt about Trump's guilt. As a result, those leading this sham proceeding are nervous about its success. And they're desperate. This was shown today by Nancy Pelosi.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Caught On Tape:Pelosi Exposed Offering Bribes For Votes Against Trump
The House will vote on the articles of impeachment before the President next week but the passing of the motion is far from a sure thing. The Republican representatives are sure to vote against and...
The site 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 tatersgonnatate.com 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 tatersgonnatate.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: CA Gov. Newsom Did NOT Pardon 1342 Prisoners So ICE Couldn't Deport Them
- Fake News: RGB Did NOT Call Impeachment 'Illegal BS'
- Fake News: Two Star Witnesses Against Biden NOT Found Floating In River Ukraine
- Fake News: ICE DID NOT Arrest LA Mayor For Harboring Fugitives Through Sanctuary City
- Fake News: Grade 3 Students NOT Disciplined For Saying 'Jesus' In Front Of Non-Christians
