On Sunday Dec. 4, 2016, Edgar Welch, 28, fired a real gun inside a real Washington, D.C., pizzeria filled with real people.
When The New York Times asked Welch what he thought when he realized there were no child slaves inside the restaurant, as one fake news story had led him to believe, he responded: “The intel on this wasn’t 100 percent.”
Fake news’ refers to stories that are created, often by entities pretending to be news organizations, solely to draw clicks and views and are based on nothing of substance.
Fake News is deliberately published hoaxes, propaganda, and disinformation, positioning itself as real news in order to promote a specific agenda.
Fake News seeks to mislead, rather than entertain, readers for financial, political, or other gain.