Welcome to the world of scandalous reporting as we uncover 11 biggest fake news stories that sound real. Despite some of them looking like something that came out of 12 funniest coolest subreddits to subscribe, people actually believed them.
In a world where people turn to Comedy Central and Jon Stewart for their daily dose of news and where it is getting harder to distinguish between CNN and The Onion, fake news are very easy to sell. For instance, if an article claims that the NSA chief forgot about his agency mass surveillance program, rational person would consider that a fake news story, because no rational person could believe such an obvious lie, and it was a story from The Onion’s front page. Unfortunately, the story is true and the said chief did make that statement.
Throughout the history, fake news were created and distributed for various purposes. Some of them are created for giggles, some, more sinister, are aimed to create chaos or confusion in enemy ranks, be it armed conflict or a political race. Some were used to instigate conflicts or justify their creators’ actions. Some of them are just a product of misunderstanding or even ignorance. We even have few that are born out of paranoia.
Although all of these have small, sometimes even obscure sources, most of these have appeared on reputable sites, but were quickly quashed, so don’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of some of them. Their origin is known in most cases and creators of these 11 biggest fake news stories that sound real will never be trusted again by the major news agencies.
11. Chinese destroyer opens fire on Japanese patrol boat
Senkaku Islands are a group of uninhabited islands in East China Sea, 410 kilometers from Okinawa that both China and Japan claim as their own. In 2013, China declared East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone that would require all airplanes entering the zone reporting to Chinese authorities. Japan retaliated by sending two patrol boats to Senkaku. Two days later, small Taiwanese website announced that a firefight between Chinese destroyer also patrolling the area and one of the Japanese patrol boats was reported by local fishermen. For a few hours, world waited in horror until fisherman in question admitted he invented the whole thing in order to sell the story and make some money. He didn’t even saw neither Chinese or Japanese vessels.
10. Swiss Black Hole
In 2013, a small Swiss website ran a story about Large Hadron Collider and how scientists were able to create a miniature black hole in the controlled environment. The news caused hysteria in towns around the LHC and almost sparked a protest before it was revealed that the story was fake and the reporter misunderstood the press release.
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9. Putin resigned
In the midst of Ukrainian conflict, news about Putin’s resignation started circling the Internet. Apparently, the Western sanctions were on a verge of crippling the Russian economy and Putin’s backers, wealthy oligarchs, just couldn’t let that happen. Few eager Western sources jumped the gun and ran the story without as much as calling Russian embassies for confirmation. Few angry phone calls later, all mentions of the story disappeared from the Internet, never to be seen again. Vladimir Putin remains at the helm of Russia.
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8. Texas uprising
Obama’s reelection in 2012 caused much consternation among Republican states. Several of the right wing sites based in Texas even called for armed resistance to the White House. One of them even declared independent Republic of Texas. The story never went viral, but the point is that nobody was surprised.
7. Mandatory gun training in Tennessee schools
After Sandy Hook school shooting in December 2012, news that Tennessee will require students to attend mandatory gun training spread like a wildfire. It turned out that just teachers who choose will be allowed to go through with the training and the glory seeking reporter made up the part about the children by deliberately creating misleading title.
6. LeBron signs for Lakers
In 2014, LeBron James opted out of his contract with Miami Heat, becoming the most sought-after free agent in NBA. One week before his return to Cleveland was announced, a story broke out of him signing with Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers were supposedly doing a massive trade in order to free up the pace in salary cap, so they could pair up Kobe and LeBron. Unfortunately for Lakers’ fans, everybody involved denied the story just hours after it was released.
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5. Mexican state declares independence
In 2013, violence in Tamaulipas, one of the northern Mexican states bordering Texas, reached catastrophic levels. Caught in the middle of the drug war between Los Zetas and Gulf Cartel, citizens started organizing themselves in vigilante groups, giving up hope on Mexican government coming to their aid. Vigilantes had tremendous success in curbing the kidnappings and killings. One of the local TV stations ran a story about Mexican Army being sent back from the town of Hidalgo. Apparently, the major who was also one of the leaders of local vigilante group, refused them access to the town and declared Tamaulipas independent. The story was retracted just a few hours later, but for a moment, it seemed as civil was to be added to Mexico’s list of troubles.
4. Seattle police reopens Kurt Cobain death investigation
Local Seattle TV station ran a story on the 20th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death that the police is taking another look at the circumstances of his death in the light of new evidence. New evidence turned out to be photos from the scene that were undeveloped at the time and showed nothing new, just the scene from a different angle.
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3. Scotland left UK
Few hours after the Scottish referendum on independence was finished, several websites reported that it was a success and from tomorrow Scotland will be “free of English yoke” again. The sample was taken from several polling stations that were heavily in favor of SNP (Scottish National Party, the main force behind the Scottish independence movement) and were rebuffed as other results came in.
2. Ford recalls F-series trucks
Ford 2013 F-series is one of the best-selling trucks in history of automotive industry, with almost 1 million units sold. Therefore when news broke out that the company was recalling every one of them due to a faulty airbag sensor, it nearly started a panic. It took Ford a while to convince people that the news was fake. Reportedly, one month later people were still coming to dealership all over the country to have their truck examined.
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1. Insider Monkey scandal
In Jun 2015, an article was published on Insider Monkey titled 11 biggest fake news stories that sound real. The biggest fake news was number one on that list, about how easy it is to create fake news and how easy it is to believe in them. Yup, we made up all the entries on this list. You can’t trust everything you read on the Internet.
