National Report

For the Colombian singles chart, see National-Report. For the news program, see Newsmax.
National Report
Type of site
Fake news
OwnerJestin Coler, also known as Allen Montgomery
Founder(s)Jestin Coler
URLnationalreport.net
Launched2013

National Report is a fake news website that posts fictional articles related to world events.[1][2] It is described by Snopes.com as a fake news site,[3] by FactCheck.org as a satirical site,[4] and by The Washington Post as part of a fake-news industry, making profits from "duping gullible Internet users with deceptively newsy headlines."[5] The National Report describes itself as a "news and political satire web publication" and provides a disclaimer that "all news articles contained within National Report are fiction".[6]

Stories from the National Report have been taken seriously by third parties such as Fox News Channel, including the false report that the town of Purdon, Texas, had been quarantined after an outbreak.[7][8] The story led to a traffic spike of two million unique visitors, and although the story was debunked by other websites, the original National Report story received six times as many "shares" on social media sites as the debunking stories did.[9]

  1. ^ Mendez, David (26 August 2013). ""National Report" Proves That Not Everyone On Internet Can Write Satire". Tucson Weekly. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  2. ^ "November Surprise". Snopes. 3 June 2014. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  3. ^ "Kindergarten Crock". Snopes. 20 October 2014. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  4. ^ "Free Gas For Low-Income Americans?". FactCheck. 25 November 2013. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  5. ^ Dewey, Caitlin (21 January 2015). "Did Facebook just kill the Web's burgeoning fake-news industry?". Washington Post. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  6. ^ "Disclaimer". National Report. 8 May 2013. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  7. ^ "Fake news sites are using Facebook to spread Ebola panic". The Verge. 22 October 2014. Retrieved 23 October 2014.
  8. ^ "Texas Town Quarantined After Family of Five Test Positive for the Ebola Virus". Snopes. 14 October 2014. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  9. ^ Shafer, Jack (29 October 2014). "Our appetite for fake Ebola stories and other bunk". Archived from the original on 30 October 2014. Retrieved 31 October 2014.