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Did BuzzFeed Publish Donald Trump Fanfiction As Real News?
Did BuzzFeed Publish Donald Trump Fanfiction As Real News?
According to Internet rumors, someone gave a Donald Trump report from November 1st, 2016 to Rick Wilson, an anti-Trump GOP consultant. He then passed it to Evan McMullin, an ex-intelligence official, who then passed it to Senator John McCain. McCain then gave it to US intelligence agencies who then leaked it to the mainstream media including CNN and BuzzFeed.
trentlapinski




It is too bad. Buzzfeed has been building their news for the last couple years and they did a spot on job during the election. Better than the coverage by NYT at some points. Heck, CNN literally poached their New York news writers at one point during the election. This is going to be a pretty rough blow to their fledgling news experiment.
I don't think Buzzfeed is the only one who published this story. Unfortunately for them (and any other news source that ran the story) no one is paying attention to the fact that they mentioned it's unverified. Probably a good idea to only run verified stories on their part, but it's also probably a good idea that all consumers of news don't cherry pick too much.
John McCain confirmed the document is real and one that was given to the FBI a month or so ago. So no this is not fake and they did not get it from 4chan as the government had this information a while ago .
I find the sudden passion for truth in journalism to be highly entertaining.
"I'm shocked there is gambling going on here, totally shocked I tell you!"
When journalism is about ratings, the truth takes a backseat, or right to the back of the bus.
A lot of questions swirling about this story and whether or not Buzzfeed should have run it. Here's an interesting article about that: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2017/01/why_buzzfeed_published_the_explosive_memos_about_trump_and_russia_and_no.html
In addition, there are already questions as to whether some of the allegations originated from 4chan or r/the_donald (article below.) So currently its just craziness, and we'll see how or if the truth gets sorted out.
Read This: "4chan Claims It Invented the Trump Golden Showers Story" http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/10/4chan-claims-they-invented-the-trump-golden-showers-story.html?via=ios
I'm fairly skeptical of 4chan's claim that they invented the story, but who knows at this point. It just seems like a really convenient way for pro-trump trolls to try to derail anything.
And more uncertainty:
How Spy Agency Vets Read That Bombshell Trump Report: With Caution - WIRED https://apple.news/Ar_55xXIeS5e41eEzrVkQoQ