Did U.S. Marines capture a "deep state base" in a "bloody battle" in Camp San Luis Obispo, California? No, that's not true: A Pentagon duty officer confirmed to Lead Stories that this claim is false. The claim appeared in an article on a website that regularly publishes fabricated content that is often mistaken for real news.
The story appeared in an article published by Real Raw News on October 13, 2023, titled "Marines Capture Deep State Base in Bloody Battle" (archived here). It opened:
United States Marines on Wednesday captured a Deep State Army National Guard base and killed its commanding officer in what a source in General Eric M. Smith's office called a 'measured response' to Saturday's assault on MCLB Albany, which left a dozen marines dead and twice that number wounded.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Marines Capture Deep State Base in Bloody Battle
United States Marines on Wednesday captured a Deep State Army National Guard base and killed its commanding officer in what a source in General Eric M. Smith's office called a "measured response" to Saturday's assault on MCLB Albany, which left a dozen marines dead and twice that number wounded.
Lead Stories contacted the Pentagon to ask about the claim. In an email on October 18, 2023, a duty officer responded:
That is absolutely false.
Real Raw News
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 makes 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.
It bills itself as "humor, parody and satire" on the "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.
