NewsPunch

NewsPunch is a Los Angeles-based fake news website known for spreading conspiracy theories, political misinformation and hoaxes, mixed in with real news stories.[1] Originally named Your News Wire,[5][11][12] it was founded in 2014 by Sean Adl-Tabatabai and Sinclair Treadway.[3][6][13] In November 2018, it rebranded itself as NewsPunch, and began redirecting yournewswire.com traffic to newspunch.com.[11]

NewsPunch

Type of site	Fake news,[1] Politics, News and opinion
Available in	English
Founder(s)	Sean Adl-Tabatabai, Sinclair Treadway
URL	newspunch.com, yournewswire.com
Alexa rank	62,587 (June 2020)[2]
Launched	2014
Current status	Active

A 2017 BuzzFeed News report identified NewsPunch as being the second-largest source of popular fake stories spread on Facebook that year,[6] 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, PolitiFact, and the Associated Press.[7]

The European Union's East StratCom Task Force has criticized NewsPunch for spreading Russian propaganda, a charge Adl-Tabatabai denies.[3]

Regular contributors to NewsPunch include Adl-Tabatabai, a former BBC and MTV employee from London previously employed by professional conspiracy theorist David Icke,[14] Adl-Tabatabai's mother Carol Adl, an alternative health practitioner, and Baxter Dmitry, who had previously been posing as an unrelated Latvian man using a stolen profile photo.[15][16]

Fake news stories

NewsPunch has published false stories, including:

• Stories pushing the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory.[17][18] 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 spread among the alt-right.[19]
• Claims that the 2017 Las Vegas shootings and Manchester Arena bombings were false flags.[20][21]
• Anti-vaccination hoaxes alleging that Bill Gates refused to vaccinate his children[22] and "admitted that vaccinations are designed so that governments can depopulate the world".[23]
• Claims that Hillary Clinton's popular vote victory in the 2016 United States Presidential election was the result of voter fraud.[24]
• Allegations that Clinton was responsible for Anthony Bourdain's suicide.[25]
• False claims that Justin Trudeau was the love child of Fidel Castro.[11]

See also

• List of fake news websites
• Fake news websites in the United States

References

1. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
2. "NewsPunch site ranks". Alexa Internet. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
3. Boswell, Josh (2017). "Mother churns out stories for master of fake news". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0956-1382. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
4. "Don't get fooled by these fake news sites". CBS News. 2017-02-10. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
5. "Websites that Post Fake and Satirical Stories - FactCheck.org". FactCheck.org. 2017-07-06. Retrieved 2018-11-25.
6. "These Are 50 Of The Biggest Fake News Hits On Facebook In 2017". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
7. "Fact-checkers have debunked this fake news site 80 times. It's still publishing on Facebook". Poynter. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
8. "YourNewsWire.com's file". @politifact. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
9. "No evidence Lisa Page blamed DNC hack on Chinese". @politifact. Retrieved 2018-08-27. ...Your News Wire which frequently publishes fake news...
10. "FACT CHECK: Did Melania Trump Ban White House Staff from Taking Flu Shot?". Snopes.com. Retrieved 2018-08-27. ...a consistent purveyor of fake news and political disinformation, YourNewsWIre[sic]...
11. Frier, Sarah (2018-11-04). "Facebook Tamped Down on Hoax Sites, But Polarization Thrives". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2018-11-06.
12. "FACT CHECK: Did a Starbucks Executive Say That 'White Men Are the Root of All Evil'?". Snopes.com. Retrieved 2018-11-25.
13. "L.A. Alt-Media Agitator (Not Breitbart) Clashes With Google, Snopes". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2018-09-04.
14. Boswell, Josh (2017-01-29). "Mother churns out stories for master of fake news". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0956-1382. Retrieved 2019-05-24. After working as a television producer for the BBC and MTV, he took a job helping to run the conspiracy theory site of David Icke, a former BBC sports presenter who claims the world is secretly run by alien reptiles in disguise.
15. Boswell, Josh (2017). "Mother churns out stories for master of fake news". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0956-1382. Retrieved 2018-09-05. Another prolific writer on the site goes by the name of Baxter Dmitry. The photograph next to the author's name was in fact that of a Latvian computer programmer, who told The Sunday Times he was not Dmitry and his identity had been stolen.
16. "Sean Adl-Tabatabai on being in the eye of the 'fake news' storm | London Evening Standard". 2018-08-16. Archived from the original on 2018-08-16. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
17. "FBI: Pizzagate Arrests 'Imminent' In Washington Pedophile Ring Bust". Your News Wire (archived by archive.is). 2017-02-04. Archived from the original on 2017-02-04. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
18. "FBI Insider: Clinton Emails Linked To Political Pedophile Sex Ring". Your News Wire (archived by archive.is). 2018-03-09. Archived from the original on 2018-03-09. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
19. "How The Bizarre Conspiracy Theory Behind "Pizzagate" Was Spread". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
20. "Debunking hoaxes, fake news about the Las Vegas massacre". PolitiFact. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
21. "FACT CHECK: Was the Manchester Terror Attack a 'False Flag'?". Snopes.com. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
22. "Website peddles false claim about Bill Gates, vaccinations". @politifact. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
23. "FACT CHECK: Did Bill Gates Admit Vaccinations Are Designed So Governments Can Depopulate the World?". Snopes.com. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
24. "FACT CHECK: Did a Study Determine 25 Million Fraudulent Votes Were Cast for Hillary Clinton?". Snopes.com. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
25. "Fake news faults Clintons for Bourdain's death". @politifact. Retrieved 2018-08-27.