Is Elon Musk considering buying the Keystone XL pipeline? No, that's not true: This claim appeared on a satirical website with a clear disclaimer on its About Us page. It is the work of Christopher Blair, a notorious liberal prankster who produces fake claims to troll conservatives.
The claim appeared in an article published by the Patriot Party Press on May 31, 2022, titled "Elon Musk Considering Buying Keystone XL Pipeline." It opened:
Do you remember when Joseph Biden won the Presidency and then immediately called for an end to the Keystone XL pipeline for absolutely no reason at all? Well we do, and now that decision may be made moot.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Elon Musk Considering Buying Keystone XL Pipeline
Oh! This might be good for us all!
(Source: Patriot Party Press screenshot taken on Tue May 31 16:40:26 2022 UTC)
This claim follows controversy surrounding high U.S. oil prices. Some believe a solution can be found in the Biden administration continuing the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline -- but President Joe Biden apparently is not rethinking his decision to cancel it.
Some social media users believed the Patriot Party Press story, as this May 27, 2022, Facebook post shows:
The Patriot Party Press is part of the "America's Last Line of Defense" network of satire websites run by self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair from Maine and a loose confederation of friends and allies. He runs several websites and Facebook pages with visible satire disclaimers everywhere. They primarily publish made-up stories with headlines specifically created to trigger Republicans, conservatives and evangelical Christians into angrily sharing or commenting on the story on Facebook without actually reading the full article, exposing them to mockery and ridicule by fans of the sites and pages.
Every site in the network, including the Patriot Party Press, 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 that omit the satire disclaimer and other hints the stories are fake. One of the most persistent networks of such sites is run by a man from Pakistan named Kashif Shahzad Khokhar (aka "DashiKashi") who has spammed hundreds of such stolen stories into conservative and right-wing Facebook pages in order to profit from the ad revenue.
When fact checkers point this out to the people liking and sharing these copycat stories some of them get mad at the fact checkers instead of directing their anger at the foreign spammers or the liberal satire writers. Others send a polite "thank you" note, which is much appreciated.
Lead Stories has debunked other articles from the Patriot Party Press website. Those stories can be found here.
