Fake News Writer

and this is why it's hard having proper discussions with people in general ...

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/11/17/facebook-fake-news-writer-i-think-donald-trump-is-in-the-white-house-because-of-me.html
By Caitlin DeweyThe Washington Post
Thu., Nov. 17, 2016

What do the Amish lobby, gay wedding vans and the ban of the national anthem have in common? For starters, they’re all make-believe — and invented by the same man.

Paul Horner, the 38-year-old impresario of a Facebook fake-news empire, has made his living off viral news hoaxes for several years. He has twice convinced the Internet that he’s British graffiti artist Banksy; he also published the very viral, very fake news of a Yelp vs. “South Park” lawsuit last year.

But in recent months, Horner has found the fake-news ecosystem growing more crowded, more political and vastly more influential: In March, Donald Trump’s son Eric and his then-campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, even tweeted links to one of Horner’s faux-articles. His stories have also appeared as news on Google.

In light of concerns that stories like Horner’s may have affected the presidential election, and in the wake of announcements that both Google and Facebook would take action against deceptive outlets, Horner opened up on his perspective on fake news.

You’ve been writing fake news for a while now — you’re kind of like the OG Facebook news hoaxer. Well, I’d call it hoaxing or fake news. You’d call it parody or satire. How is that scene different now than it was three or five years ago? Why did something like your story about Obama invalidating the election results (almost 250,000 Facebook shares, as of this writing) go so viral?

Honestly, people are definitely dumber. They just keep passing stuff around. Nobody fact-checks anything anymore — I mean, that’s how Trump got elected. He just said whatever he wanted, and people believed everything, and when the things he said turned out not to be true, people didn’t care because they’d already accepted it. It’s real scary. I’ve never seen anything like it.

You mentioned Trump, and you’ve probably heard the argument, or the concern, that fake news somehow helped him get elected. What do you make of that?

My sites were picked up by Trump supporters all the time. I think Trump is in the White House because of me. His followers don’t fact-check anything — they’ll post everything, believe anything. His campaign manager posted my story about a protester getting paid $3,500 as fact. Like, I made that up. I posted a fake ad on Craigslist.

Why? I mean — why would you even write that?

Just ‘cause his supporters were under the belief that people were getting paid to protest at their rallies, and that’s just insane. I’ve gone to Trump protests — trust me, no one needs to get paid to protest Trump. I just wanted to make fun of that insane belief, but it took off. They actually believed it.

I thought they’d fact-check it, and it’d make them look worse. I mean that’s how this always works: Someone posts something I write, then they find out it’s false, then they look like idiots. But Trump supporters — they just keep running with it! They never fact-check anything! Now he’s in the White House. Looking back, instead of hurting the campaign, I think I helped it. And that feels (bad).

You think you personally helped elect Trump?

I don’t know. I don’t know if I did or not. I don’t know. I don’t know.

I guess I’m curious, if you believed you might be having an unfair impact on the election — especially if that impact went against your own political beliefs — why didn’t you stop? Why keep writing?

I didn’t think it was possible for him to get elected president. I thought I was messing with the campaign, maybe I wasn’t messing them up as much as I wanted — but I never thought he’d actually get elected. I didn’t even think about it. In hindsight, everyone should’ve seen this coming — everyone assumed Hillary (Clinton) would just get in. But she didn’t, and Trump is president.

Speaking of Clinton — did you target fake news at her supporters? Or Gary Johnson’s, for that matter? (Horner’s Facebook picture shows him at a rally for Johnson.)

No. I hate Trump.

Is that it? You posted on Facebook a couple weeks ago that you had a lot of ideas for satirizing Clinton and other figures, but that “no joke ... in doing this for six years, the people who clicked ads the most, like it’s the cure for cancer, is right-wing Republicans.” That makes it sound like you’ve found targeting conservatives is more profitable.

Yeah, it is. They don’t fact-check.

But a Trump presidency is good for you from a business perspective, right?

It’s great for anybody who does anything with satire — there’s nothing you can’t write about now that people won’t believe. I can write the craziest thing about Trump, and people will believe it. I wrote a lot of crazy anti-Muslim stuff — like about Trump wanting to put badges on Muslims, or not allowing them in the airport, or making them stand in their own line — and people went along with it!

Facebook and Google recently announced that they’d no longer let fake-news sites use their advertising platforms. I know you basically make your living from those services. How worried are you about this?

This whole Google AdSense thing is pretty scary. And all this Facebook stuff. I make most of my money from AdSense — like, you wouldn’t believe how much money I make from it. Right now I make like $10,000 a month from AdSense.

I know ways of getting hooked up under different names and sites. So probably if they cracked down, I would try different things. I have at least 10 sites right now. If they crack down on a couple, I’ll just use others. They could shut down advertising on all my sites, and I think I’d be OK. Plus, Facebook and AdSense make a lot of money from (advertising on fake news sites) for them to just get rid of it. They’d lose a lot of money.

But if it did really go away, that would suck. I don’t know what I would do.

Thinking about this less selfishly, though — it might be good if Facebook and Google took action, right? Because the effects you’re describing are pretty scary.

Yeah, I mean — a lot of the sites people are talking about, they’re just total BS sites. There’s no creativity or purpose behind them. I’m glad they’re getting rid of them. I don’t like getting lumped in with Huzlers. I like getting lumped in with the Onion. The stuff I do — I spend more time on it. There’s purpose and meaning behind it. I don’t just write fake news just to write it.

So, yeah, I see a lot of the sites they’re listing, and I’m like — good. There are so many horrible sites out there. I’m glad they’re getting rid of those sites.

I just hope they don’t get rid of mine, too.
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Comments

  • HughFreakingDillonHughFreakingDillon Winnipeg Posts: 37,350
    brutal.
    "Oh Canada...you're beautiful when you're drunk"
    -EV  8/14/93




  • pjalive21pjalive21 St. Louis, MO Posts: 2,818
    Right now I make like $10,000 a month from AdSense.

    I know ways of getting hooked up under different names and sites. So probably if they cracked down, I would try different things. I have at least 10 sites right now. If they crack down on a couple, I’ll just use others.

    Why out of that entire article i had a problem with this?

    the other stuff we can just assume people can't fact check worth a crap and its not just conservatives and i know that for a fact from my facebook there was a lot of misinformation being spread around by everybody
  • DegeneratefkDegeneratefk Posts: 3,123
    edited November 2016
    will myself to find a home, a home within myself
    we will find a way, we will find our place
  • HughFreakingDillonHughFreakingDillon Winnipeg Posts: 37,350
    edited November 2016
    pjalive21 said:

    Right now I make like $10,000 a month from AdSense.

    I know ways of getting hooked up under different names and sites. So probably if they cracked down, I would try different things. I have at least 10 sites right now. If they crack down on a couple, I’ll just use others.

    Why out of that entire article i had a problem with this?

    the other stuff we can just assume people can't fact check worth a crap and its not just conservatives and i know that for a fact from my facebook there was a lot of misinformation being spread around by everybody

    I am constantly asking people if they read before they forward/post, or just look at the headline and get "outraged". Many times it's the former. On both sides.

    edit: meant to say "many times it's the latter".
    Post edited by HughFreakingDillon on
    "Oh Canada...you're beautiful when you're drunk"
    -EV  8/14/93




  • pjalive21pjalive21 St. Louis, MO Posts: 2,818

    pjalive21 said:

    Right now I make like $10,000 a month from AdSense.

    I know ways of getting hooked up under different names and sites. So probably if they cracked down, I would try different things. I have at least 10 sites right now. If they crack down on a couple, I’ll just use others.

    Why out of that entire article i had a problem with this?

    the other stuff we can just assume people can't fact check worth a crap and its not just conservatives and i know that for a fact from my facebook there was a lot of misinformation being spread around by everybody

    I am constantly asking people if they read before they forward/post, or just look at the headline and get "outraged". Many times it's the former. On both sides.
    most people read the headline only and then react...Infowars is notorious for this
  • HughFreakingDillonHughFreakingDillon Winnipeg Posts: 37,350
    pjalive21 said:

    pjalive21 said:

    Right now I make like $10,000 a month from AdSense.

    I know ways of getting hooked up under different names and sites. So probably if they cracked down, I would try different things. I have at least 10 sites right now. If they crack down on a couple, I’ll just use others.

    Why out of that entire article i had a problem with this?

    the other stuff we can just assume people can't fact check worth a crap and its not just conservatives and i know that for a fact from my facebook there was a lot of misinformation being spread around by everybody

    I am constantly asking people if they read before they forward/post, or just look at the headline and get "outraged". Many times it's the former. On both sides.
    most people read the headline only and then react...Infowars is notorious for this
    sorry, I meant to say latter. :punch:
    "Oh Canada...you're beautiful when you're drunk"
    -EV  8/14/93




  • hedonisthedonist Posts: 24,524
    It's sad but not surprising. Look how many people take tweets and blogs as gospel...so why not this too?

    (it'd be funny if the original post up there were fake in itself)
  • Go BeaversGo Beavers Posts: 9,171
    pjalive21 said:

    Right now I make like $10,000 a month from AdSense.

    I know ways of getting hooked up under different names and sites. So probably if they cracked down, I would try different things. I have at least 10 sites right now. If they crack down on a couple, I’ll just use others.

    Why out of that entire article i had a problem with this?

    the other stuff we can just assume people can't fact check worth a crap and its not just conservatives and i know that for a fact from my facebook there was a lot of misinformation being spread around by everybody

    "They don't fact check". This is the case all day long. But I disagree about the looking foolish part. They only look foolish to people outside their bubble. The like-minded people reinforce this idea that you don't need to fact check. That it could actually be true anyway, or that "liberals do it too". Hey, I read in here that Soros is paying the rioters. Not based on any facts, but it must be true, I can feel it.
  • BentleyspopBentleyspop Craft Beer Brewery, Colorado Posts: 10,821
    pjalive21 said:

    pjalive21 said:

    Right now I make like $10,000 a month from AdSense.

    I know ways of getting hooked up under different names and sites. So probably if they cracked down, I would try different things. I have at least 10 sites right now. If they crack down on a couple, I’ll just use others.

    Why out of that entire article i had a problem with this?

    the other stuff we can just assume people can't fact check worth a crap and its not just conservatives and i know that for a fact from my facebook there was a lot of misinformation being spread around by everybody

    I am constantly asking people if they read before they forward/post, or just look at the headline and get "outraged". Many times it's the former. On both sides.
    most people read the headline only and then react...Infowars is notorious for this
    Don't forget zero hedge, newsmax, and breitbart in that discussion
  • EM194007EM194007 Posts: 2,827

    pjalive21 said:

    pjalive21 said:

    Right now I make like $10,000 a month from AdSense.

    I know ways of getting hooked up under different names and sites. So probably if they cracked down, I would try different things. I have at least 10 sites right now. If they crack down on a couple, I’ll just use others.

    Why out of that entire article i had a problem with this?

    the other stuff we can just assume people can't fact check worth a crap and its not just conservatives and i know that for a fact from my facebook there was a lot of misinformation being spread around by everybody

    I am constantly asking people if they read before they forward/post, or just look at the headline and get "outraged". Many times it's the former. On both sides.
    most people read the headline only and then react...Infowars is notorious for this
    Don't forget zero hedge, newsmax, and breitbart in that discussion
    Don't forget these as well, they need a honorable mention as well. Sure there are more, just a few off the top of the head.


    CNN
    The Huffington Post
    NPR
    Slate
    Politico
    Salon
    The Democratic Underground
    The Atlantic
    The Village Voice
    Daily Kos
    New Yorker
    The Daily Beast
    Crooks and Liars
    MoveOn
    Mother Jones
    Amnesty International
    Counterpunch
    The Nation
    Antiwar
    Think Progress
    Raw Story
    The New Republic
  • JC29856JC29856 Posts: 9,617
    Soros
    Operation protests and riots are only somewhat successful lets began phase 2 Operation fake news stories.
    Please remain on standby for phase 3.
  • Cnn, yea they're the same as breibart. Ok
    will myself to find a home, a home within myself
    we will find a way, we will find our place
  • polaris_xpolaris_x Posts: 13,559
    the sad part is people are determining what is fact based on their biases ... :disappointed:

    people are so indoctrinated that they can't think critically anymore ... that's why it's soooo easy to convince people of things ...
  • JC29856JC29856 Posts: 9,617
    polaris_x said:

    the sad part is people are determining what is fact based on their biases ... :disappointed:

    people are so indoctrinated that they can't think critically anymore ... that's why it's soooo easy to convince people of things ...

    Correct
  • Go BeaversGo Beavers Posts: 9,171
    edited November 2016
    EM194007 said:

    pjalive21 said:

    pjalive21 said:

    Right now I make like $10,000 a month from AdSense.

    I know ways of getting hooked up under different names and sites. So probably if they cracked down, I would try different things. I have at least 10 sites right now. If they crack down on a couple, I’ll just use others.

    Why out of that entire article i had a problem with this?

    the other stuff we can just assume people can't fact check worth a crap and its not just conservatives and i know that for a fact from my facebook there was a lot of misinformation being spread around by everybody

    I am constantly asking people if they read before they forward/post, or just look at the headline and get "outraged". Many times it's the former. On both sides.
    most people read the headline only and then react...Infowars is notorious for this
    Don't forget zero hedge, newsmax, and breitbart in that discussion
    Don't forget these as well, they need a honorable mention as well. Sure there are more, just a few off the top of the head.


    CNN
    The Huffington Post
    NPR
    Slate
    Politico
    Salon
    The Democratic Underground
    The Atlantic
    The Village Voice
    Daily Kos
    New Yorker
    The Daily Beast
    Crooks and Liars
    MoveOn
    Mother Jones
    Amnesty International
    Counterpunch
    The Nation
    Antiwar
    Think Progress
    Raw Story
    The New Republic
    I love the Atlantic, and it's concerning that I see them on your list. Can you give a link to one of their fake news stories?
  • EM194007 said:

    pjalive21 said:

    pjalive21 said:

    Right now I make like $10,000 a month from AdSense.

    I know ways of getting hooked up under different names and sites. So probably if they cracked down, I would try different things. I have at least 10 sites right now. If they crack down on a couple, I’ll just use others.

    Why out of that entire article i had a problem with this?

    the other stuff we can just assume people can't fact check worth a crap and its not just conservatives and i know that for a fact from my facebook there was a lot of misinformation being spread around by everybody

    I am constantly asking people if they read before they forward/post, or just look at the headline and get "outraged". Many times it's the former. On both sides.
    most people read the headline only and then react...Infowars is notorious for this
    Don't forget zero hedge, newsmax, and breitbart in that discussion
    Don't forget these as well, they need a honorable mention as well. Sure there are more, just a few off the top of the head.


    CNN
    The Huffington Post
    NPR
    Slate
    Politico
    Salon
    The Democratic Underground
    The Atlantic
    The Village Voice
    Daily Kos
    New Yorker
    The Daily Beast
    Crooks and Liars
    MoveOn
    Mother Jones
    Amnesty International
    Counterpunch
    The Nation
    Antiwar
    Think Progress
    Raw Story
    The New Republic
    I love the Atlantic, and it's concerning that I see them on your list. Can you give a link to one of their fake news stories?
    Please do the same with cnn.
    will myself to find a home, a home within myself
    we will find a way, we will find our place
  • JC29856JC29856 Posts: 9,617
    image
  • rgambsrgambs Posts: 13,576
    pjalive21 said:

    Right now I make like $10,000 a month from AdSense.

    I know ways of getting hooked up under different names and sites. So probably if they cracked down, I would try different things. I have at least 10 sites right now. If they crack down on a couple, I’ll just use others.

    Why out of that entire article i had a problem with this?

    the other stuff we can just assume people can't fact check worth a crap and its not just conservatives and i know that for a fact from my facebook there was a lot of misinformation being spread around by everybody

    I would like to see an example from the left. Occupy Democrats is incredibly biased and their headlines are incredibly exaggerated, but I have never seen a left leaning meme or story that is as blatantly false as the stuff I see from the right.

    Honestly, it doesn't matter what you personally believe, if you are objectively observing the only conclusion you can possibly make is that misinformation is dominated by the right, from the highest politicians to the lowest man on the street.

    Paul Ryan just lied through his teeth about Medicare, spreading known misinformation from the top in a way that the left does much less.
    Monkey Driven, Call this Living?
  • g under pg under p Surfing The far side of THE Sombrero Galaxy Posts: 18,199
    EM194007 said:

    pjalive21 said:

    pjalive21 said:

    Right now I make like $10,000 a month from AdSense.

    I know ways of getting hooked up under different names and sites. So probably if they cracked down, I would try different things. I have at least 10 sites right now. If they crack down on a couple, I’ll just use others.

    Why out of that entire article i had a problem with this?

    the other stuff we can just assume people can't fact check worth a crap and its not just conservatives and i know that for a fact from my facebook there was a lot of misinformation being spread around by everybody

    I am constantly asking people if they read before they forward/post, or just look at the headline and get "outraged". Many times it's the former. On both sides.
    most people read the headline only and then react...Infowars is notorious for this
    Don't forget zero hedge, newsmax, and breitbart in that discussion
    Don't forget these as well, they need a honorable mention as well. Sure there are more, just a few off the top of the head.


    CNN
    The Huffington Post
    NPR
    Slate
    Politico
    Salon
    The Democratic Underground
    The Atlantic
    The Village Voice
    Daily Kos
    New Yorker
    The Daily Beast
    Crooks and Liars
    MoveOn
    Mother Jones
    Amnesty International
    Counterpunch
    The Nation
    Antiwar
    Think Progress
    Raw Story
    The New Republic
    Good to see the listener supported station Democracy Now is not on that list.

    Peace
    *We CAN bomb the World to pieces, but we CAN'T bomb it into PEACE*...Michael Franti

    *MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
    .....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti

    *The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)


  • rgambsrgambs Posts: 13,576
    EM194007 said:

    pjalive21 said:

    pjalive21 said:

    Right now I make like $10,000 a month from AdSense.

    I know ways of getting hooked up under different names and sites. So probably if they cracked down, I would try different things. I have at least 10 sites right now. If they crack down on a couple, I’ll just use others.

    Why out of that entire article i had a problem with this?

    the other stuff we can just assume people can't fact check worth a crap and its not just conservatives and i know that for a fact from my facebook there was a lot of misinformation being spread around by everybody

    I am constantly asking people if they read before they forward/post, or just look at the headline and get "outraged". Many times it's the former. On both sides.
    most people read the headline only and then react...Infowars is notorious for this
    Don't forget zero hedge, newsmax, and breitbart in that discussion
    Don't forget these as well, they need a honorable mention as well. Sure there are more, just a few off the top of the head.


    CNN
    The Huffington Post
    NPR
    Slate
    Politico
    Salon
    The Democratic Underground
    The Atlantic
    The Village Voice
    Daily Kos
    New Yorker
    The Daily Beast
    Crooks and Liars
    MoveOn
    Mother Jones
    Amnesty International
    Counterpunch
    The Nation
    Antiwar
    Think Progress
    Raw Story
    The New Republic
    Oh that's just baloney!
    Get real.
    Monkey Driven, Call this Living?
  • JC29856JC29856 Posts: 9,617
    image
  • Go BeaversGo Beavers Posts: 9,171
    No. that's reporting on what poll results were. Whoever made that meme is why fake news gets spread.
  • pjalive21pjalive21 St. Louis, MO Posts: 2,818
    edited November 2016
    JC29856 said:

    image

    I wish i could dig thru all these threads where i stated there was a "Silent Majority" that was going to propel Trump to a victory and that polls were going to be no longer relevant and outdated... I got lambasted for it
    Post edited by pjalive21 on
  • Go BeaversGo Beavers Posts: 9,171
    91 million people are a majority?
  • JC29856JC29856 Posts: 9,617
    pjalive21 said:

    JC29856 said:

    image

    I wish i could dig thru all these threads where i stated there was a "Silent Majority" that was going to propel Trump to a victory and that polls were going to be no longer relevant and outdated... I got lambasted for it
    Go look and quote yourself, it gets some incensed when self quoting.
  • pjhawkspjhawks Posts: 12,568
    pjalive21 said:

    JC29856 said:

    image

    I wish i could dig thru all these threads where i stated there was a "Silent Majority" that was going to propel Trump to a victory and that polls were going to be no longer relevant and outdated... I got lambasted for it
    except he didn't get a majority of votes...so yea incorrect.
  • JC29856JC29856 Posts: 9,617
    JC29856 said:

    pjalive21 said:

    JC29856 said:

    image

    I wish i could dig thru all these threads where i stated there was a "Silent Majority" that was going to propel Trump to a victory and that polls were going to be no longer relevant and outdated... I got lambasted for it
    Go look and quote yourself, it gets some incensed when self quoting.
    Do it!
  • pjalive21pjalive21 St. Louis, MO Posts: 2,818
    edited November 2016
    JC29856 said:

    JC29856 said:

    pjalive21 said:

    JC29856 said:

    image

    I wish i could dig thru all these threads where i stated there was a "Silent Majority" that was going to propel Trump to a victory and that polls were going to be no longer relevant and outdated... I got lambasted for it
    Go look and quote yourself, it gets some incensed when self quoting.
    Do it!
    Call me Nostradamus!!!!!!! :lol:

    From The Final Election Elections predictions page........

    November 8 edited November 8 Flag
    i think tonight puts the final nail in the coffin for the media and prediction pundits...polls become irrelevant moving forward

    i think the people (silent majority) finally get heard and they rock the system and we get Donald Trump as the next President of the United States

    either way..whoever wins..."god" help us all

    to all those who have discussed the political season to exhaustion with me and the rest of AMT, its been quite the ride and i hope we all prosper in whatever way possible from whoever is elected and moving forward the rest of the country learns from this mistake in the future
  • polaris_xpolaris_x Posts: 13,559
    JC29856 said:

    image

    this is not really fake news ...

    if anything - a post like that helps trump because it would make non-trump supporters complacent ...
  • Go BeaversGo Beavers Posts: 9,171
    So two weeks since the election, what have we learned from out trump mistake?
This discussion has been closed.