''NewsPunch'' is a Los Angeles-based fake news website. Originally named ''Your News Wire'', it was founded in 2014 by Sean Adl-Tabatabai and his husband Sinclair Treadway. In November 2018, it rebranded itself as ''NewsPunch''. ''Your News Wire'' was revived as a separate website in November 2020, and has continued publishing hoaxes similar to those in ''NewsPunch''. A 2017 ''

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...

'' report identified ''NewsPunch'' as being the second-largest source of popular fake stories spread on Facebook that year, and a June 2018 Poynter analysis identified ''NewsPunch'' as being debunked over 80 times in 2017 and 2018 by Poynter-accredited factcheckers such as Snopes,

FactCheck.org FactCheck.org is a nonprofit website that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in Politics of the United States, U.S. politics by providing original research on misinformation and hoaxes. It is a project of the Annenberg Public Po ...

PolitiFact PolitiFact.com is an American nonprofit project operated by the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, with offices there and in Washington, D.C. It began in 2007 as a project of the ''Tampa Bay Times'' (then the ''St. Petersburg Times'' ...

, and the Associated Press. The European Union's

East StratCom Task Force The East StratCom Task Force (ESCTF) is a part of the European External Action Service, focused on "effective communication" and promotion of European Union activities in Eastern Europe (including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, ...

has criticized ''NewsPunch'' for spreading

Russian propaganda The propaganda of the Russian Federation promotes views, perceptions or agendas of the government of Russia. The media include state-run outlets and online technologies, and may involve using "Soviet-style 'active measures' as an element of m ...

, a charge Adl-Tabatabai denies. Regular contributors to ''NewsPunch'' include Adl-Tabatabai, a former BBC and

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

employee from London previously an employee of conspiracy theorist David Icke, Adl-Tabatabai's mother Carol Adl, an

alternative health Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alt ...

practitioner, and Baxter Dmitry, who had previously been posing as an unrelated

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

n man using a stolen profile photo.

Fake news stories

''NewsPunch'' has published false stories, including: * Stories pushing the debunked

Pizzagate conspiracy theory "Pizzagate" is a conspiracy theory that went viral during the 2016 United States presidential election cycle. It has been extensively discredited by a wide range of organizations, including the Washington, D.C. police. In March 2016, the pe ...

. ''NewsPunch'' was one of the first sites to propagate the conspiracy theory, publishing a falsified story that was later used as a basis for Pizzagate's

viral Viral means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents). Viral may also refer to: Viral behavior, or virality Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example: * Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spread a marke ...

spread among the

alt-right The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...

. * Claims that the 2017 Las Vegas shootings and Manchester Arena bombings were false flags. * Anti-vaccination hoaxes alleging that Bill Gates refused to vaccinate his children and "admitted that vaccinations are designed so that governments can depopulate the world". * Claims that Hillary Clinton's popular vote victory in the

2016 United States Presidential election The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket ...

was the result of voter fraud. * Allegations that Clinton was responsible for

Anthony Bourdain Anthony Michael Bourdain (; June 25, 1956 – June 8, 2018) was an American celebrity chef, author, and travel documentarian who starred in programs focusing on the exploration of international culture, cuisine, and the human condition. Bourdai ...

's suicide,{{Cite web , last=Emery , first=David , date=June 11, 2018 , title=Was Anthony Bourdain Killed by Clinton Operatives? , url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/anthony-bourdain-killed-by-clinton-operatives/ , access-date=2022-10-12 , website= Snopes , language=en-US invoking the conspiracy theory that the Clintons had murdered people. * False claims that Justin Trudeau was the love child of

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...

References

Fake news websites American news websites Conspiracist media American political websites Mass media in Los Angeles

Fake news stories

See also

References