Was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hanged at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba? No, that's not true: The claim was reported on a website well-known for making up stories about public figures. The site has a disclaimer warning readers not to take its content too seriously, as the site contains "humor, parody, and satire."
The claim appeared in an article (archived here) published by Real Raw News on December 27, 2022. Titled, "Nancy Pelosi Hanged at GITMO," the article opened:
President Donald J. Trump was at Guantanamo Bay Tuesday to witness Nancy Pelosi's execution, which took place at 10:00 a.m., JAG sources told Real Raw News.
Users on social media saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Nancy Pelosi Hanged at GITMO | Real Raw News
Real Raw News previously reported that Pelosi and "other Deep Staters" were arrested on December 1, 2022. She wasn't.
Since her supposed arrest, Pelosi has tweeted from her verified account. She even sent a message on the day of her supposed execution, as can be seen here. She has also appeared at various public events, as can be seen in this CNN photo of her at the December 4, 2022 Kennedy Center Honors and in this ABC News video of her December 22, 2022 press conference.
Real Raw News is a website that consistently publishes made-up stories about U.S. politics. The well-written English and news-style layout of the website make it look like a legitimate news source, so it often fools people into believing the stories are real. Screenshots and copies of the stories regularly turn up on other websites or on social media where they are presented as real.
However, the website for Real Raw News includes a disclaimer cautioning readers not to take its content too seriously. Specifically, the site bills itself as "humor, parody, and satire" and says on its "About" page (archived here):
Disclaimer:
Information on this website is for informational and educational and entertainment purposes. This website contains humor, parody, and satire. We have included this disclaimer for our protection, on the advice on legal counsel.
The same "about" page claims the main author is a man named Michael Baxter. In 2021, a PolitiFact article (archived here) identified the writer as a "Michael Tuffin" in Texas, based on records found in a GoFundMe campaign set up to support the site.
NewsGuard, a tool that provides credibility ratings for websites, published a five-page PDF report (archived here) in 2021, describing realrawnews.com as "an anonymously run website that has published baseless and debunked conspiracies about COVID-19 and U.S. politics." It cautioned that the website severely violates basic journalistic standards.
Lead Stories has covered claims published by Real Raw News in the past. Previous Lead Stories debunks of Real Raw News items are collected here.
