Logo for the Denver Guardian

The Denver Guardian was a fake news website,[1][2] known for a popular untrue story about Hillary Clinton posted on the site on November 5, 2016,[3] three days before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, which Clinton lost.[4] The story, entitled "FBI Agent Suspected In Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead In Apparent Murder-Suicide", alleged that an FBI agent investigating Clinton had been found dead in a Maryland house fire.[5] The story was shared on Facebook (a news source for "44 percent of U.S. adults")[6][7] more than half a million times and earned more than 15.5 million impressions.[6][8] According to a Denver Post newspaper story on the Denver Guardian and the Clinton article,

  • While "The Guardian" claimed to be Denver's "oldest" news source, the site's domain was first registered only a few months before in July 2016;[9]
  • The story on Clinton appeared to be the only article on the website (it was "the only story showing up under the "News" section and all other sections are turning up errors");[9]
  • While the story quoted a "Walkerville Police Chief Pat Frederick", Walkersville, Maryland, does not have a police department.[9] The address the site listed for "The Guardian" newsroom was actually a parking lot.[10][9]

The site was registered anonymously and built using WordPress, but an investigator employed by National Public Radio found the site was operated by Jestin Coler, the founder, and CEO of Disinfomedia and owner of several other fake news sites.[8] As of March 27, 2017, the site still existed but had no news or any other content. Jestin Coler, as of April 2022, is running for the Indiana House of Representatives.[11]

See also

  • Baltimore Gazette – a defunct newspaper, the name of which has been reused by a fake news website.

References

  1. ↑ Baumgartner, Jody C.; Francia, Peter L. (2019-11-15). Conventional Wisdom and American Elections: Exploding Myths, Exploring Misconceptions. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 97. ISBN 978-1-5381-2917-3.
  2. ↑ Osmundsen, Mathias; Bor, Alexander; Vahlstrup, Peter Bjerregaard; Bechmann, Anja; Petersen, Michael Bang (May 7, 2021). "Partisan Polarization Is the Primary Psychological Motivation behind Political Fake News Sharing on Twitter". American Political Science Review. Cambridge University Press. 115 (3): 999–1015. doi:10.1017/S0003055421000290. ISSN 0003-0554. S2CID 235527523.
  3. ↑ "FBI AGENT SUSPECTED IN HILLARY EMAIL LEAKS FOUND DEAD IN APPARENT MURDER-SUICIDE". Denver Guardian. 2016-11-05. Archived from the original on 2016-11-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  4. ↑ Romano, Aja (16 November 2016). "The scariest part of Facebook's fake news problem: fake news is more viral than real news". Vox (published 2016-11-16).
  5. ↑ Rogers, Katie; Bromwich, Jonah Engel (2016-11-08). "The Hoaxes, Fake News and Misinformation We Saw on Election Day". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
  6. 1 2 Grenoble, Ryan (2016-11-16). "Here Are Some Of Those Fake News Stories That Mark Zuckerberg Isn't Worried About". Huffington Post. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  7. ↑ Gottfried, Jeffrey; Shearer, Elisa (2016-05-26). "News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2016". Pew Research Center's Journalism Project. Retrieved 2017-03-28.
  8. 1 2 Sydell, Laura (2016-11-23). "We Tracked Down A Fake-News Creator In The Suburbs. Here's What We Learned". NPR.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Lubbers, Eric (6 November 2016). "There is no such thing as the Denver Guardian, despite that Facebook post you saw". Denver Post (published 2016-11-05).
  10. ↑ Mikkelson, David (11 November 2016). "Pardon for the Course". Snopes (published 2016-11-11).
  11. ↑ https://ballotpedia.org/Jestin_Coler


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