Creators of Fake News
There is a common misconception that those who create fake news are either Russian trolls or Macedonian teenagers. While that profile certainly exists, it does not tell the whole story. Indeed, some of the notorious creators spreading disinformation about American politics are living inside the United States. Perhaps even more surprising, some of the purveyors of pro-Trump fake news are, in fact, liberals (Saslow, 2018). The author of such fake headlines as “Clinton Foundation ship caught smuggling refugees!” is Christopher Blair. He lives in Maine and “umpires Little League games” (Baker, 2018, para. 10).
Blair told the newspaper that he created a fake news blog, “The Resistance: The Last Line of Defense,” under the guise of being a far-right conservative. He bought Facebook ads that microtargeted people over the age of 55 who “liked” Donald Trump and Sean Hannity. Soon, his fake news network was raking in thousands of online “shares.” As part of his effort, he would scour the Internet, and far-right blogs, for talking points and conspiracy theories that were percolating. Many of his stories went viral as his following grew on Facebook. Blair and a writer who works with him told the Globe that they are merely “holding up a mirror to actual stuff conservatives say on a daily basis” (Baker, 2018, para. 22). Nowadays, Blair labels his stories as “satire,” an area that Facebook does not fact-check. However, that has not stopped people, who often only read a story’s headline, from believing the stories and sharing them with their friends and family.
I reached out to Blair in October 2019 over social media. He replied that he would respond to my questions a few weeks later via email. I asked him why he decided to create fake news. “I created a Facebook page for trolling conservatives and it evolved into satire after seeing how effective it is” (C. Blair, personal communication, November 5, 2019). As to why people believe his made-up stories: “Pro-Trump readers are low-information, poorly educated people willing to believe anything that confirms their bias” (C. Blair, personal communication, November 5, 2019). Blair went on to say:
There are many who just read a headline and share. That’s not exclusive to the right. The difference is, when it’s pointed out to someone on the left, they acknowledge and delete their post while the common Trumpster fights until they can’t fight anymore to defend it as true. Good headlines are important to any publisher. (C. Blair, personal communication, November 5, 2019)
When asked, as a lifelong Democrat, whether he was worried that his work was helping Trump get re-elected, he replied, “No.”
This is a fake story from the nonexistent “Denver Guardian” newspaper that was shared by tens of thousands of people on social media (Lubbers, 2016).
NPR tracked down another fake news creator in Orange County, California. Jestin Coler created several websites that, at first glance, appear to resemble legitimate news sites: Denverguardian.com, NationalReport.net, and USAToday.com.co. One headline from the made-up Denver newspaper suggested, “FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide” (Sydell, 2019, para. 1). The story was false, but it got more than half-a-million shares on Facebook. Coler told NPR that his team “tried to write fake news for liberals – but they just never take the bait” (Sydell, 2019, para. 21). Coler is a registered Democrat. Figure 4 is an example of one of Coler’s fake stories.