Multiple News Sites Publish Corrections After Falling For Fake Story About Michele Bachmann
AP
The sites - including ThinkProgress and Crooks and Liars - based the story on a parody site called KCTV7 News that features clearly absurd stories on its home page. For example, one KCTV7 news story is entitled, "Feds Spend $2.2 Million To Study Why Lesbians Are Obese."
As Raw Story pointed out on Sunday, KCTV7 appears to have copied the story from another joke site, the National Report, which published it two weeks ago.
Both liberal outlets retracted their stories after publication and apologized for being duped.
"We sincerely regret the error," ThinkProgress wrote, doing a complete strike through the text of the original article.
Crooks and Liars argued Bachmann's outspoken conservatism made the parody believable.
"Yeah, I got pwned," the author wrote. "How sad is it that it was just this side of realistic enough to believe in the first place. When you have a reputation for making outrageous and ridiculous comments, it becomes easier and easier to believe something that should have been dismissed out of hand."
Bachmann's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
- Fresh photographs of Milky Way’s black hole Sgr A* reveal strong, twisted magnetic field similar to M87*
- 8 Lesser-known places to explore in Himachal Pradesh
- Markets end FY24 on buoyant note amid positive global cues
- SRM Contractors IPO allotment – How to check allotment, GMP, listing date and more
- Rupee falls 6 paise to settle at 83.39 against US dollar