In November 2018, a Grand Rapids, Michigan woman who needed a heart transplant due to complications from chemotherapy was turned down by a Spectrum Health medical committee due to lack of funds: Martin’s son, Alex Britt, said she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 and the chemotherapy treatment, while curing her cancer, damaged her …
Did a Medical Committee Recommend Fundraising for a Heart Transplant? Read More »
The days following a cross-border chemical attack by American forces on unarmed members of a caravan of men, women, and children from Central America across the border with Mexico were filled with disinformation and outright propaganda as people and organizations attempted to justify the actions. One of the tear gas canisters the US used on …
Was Teargas Used ‘Once a Month’ at the Border Under the Obama Administration? Read More »
On November 25th, 2018, at the tail end of the long Thanksgiving weekend in the United States, the United States government closed down the San Ysidro port of entry — one of the busiest land crossings in the world — into and out of Mexico. When a group of people ran to the border crossing, …
Were Photographs Showing the United States Firing Teargas at a Crowd in Mexico ‘Staged’? Read More »
In November 2018, an odd little article about a leaked internal memo at Leeds Trinity University appeared in the British tabloid the Express. According to the story, the university told professors not to use all capital letters in order to avoid “frightening” students: Staff at Leeds Trinity’s school of journalism have also been told to “write in …
Did Leeds Trinity University Ban Capital Letters to Avoid Frightening Students? Read More »
A bombshell report about Michael Avenatti, a high-profile lawyer turned potential politician, appeared on celebrity news and gossip site TMZ in November 2018: Michael Avenatti, who became famous for representing Stormy Daniels in her battle with President Trump, has been arrested for felony domestic violence … law enforcement sources tell TMZ. Our law enforcement sources say Avenatti was …
Does a Photograph Prove that Michael Avenatti (or Keith Ellison) Badly Beat a Woman? Read More »
An annual caravan of people traveling from Central America to the United States to seek asylum and refuge from extreme violence in their home countries has been beset by falsehoods, lies, and disinformation from start to finish — from baseless claims that they are “invaders” and gang members and the ensuing arrival of American troops to “secure” …
Is a Caravan of Central American Asylum-Seekers Demanding Special Treatment? Read More »
A strange story about Indonesian youths finding a interesting “new” way to get high made the rounds in November 2018: taking sanitary pads, boiling them into a soup, and then drinking the ensuring slurry after it cooled. The pads, the story helpfully assured us, could be either new or used, and that diapers could also do …
Are Young People Boiling Menstrual Pads to Get High? Read More »
In mid-November 2018, the New York Times published a bombshell report about Facebook that convulsed both traditional and social media. The beleaguered site has been at the center of scandal after fake news scandal from the mass displacement and genocide of Myanmar’s Rohingya people to the Brexit crisis — all enabled and abetted by disinformation and …
Facebook Spread Fake News, Hired ‘Trackers’ to Smear Critics Read More »
A man with ties to some of the most violent hate groups in the United States has been arrested and charged with illegal possession of firearms just weeks after his younger brother — also reportedly a known white supremacist — committed suicide. According to court documents, 30-year-old Jeffrey “Raph” Clark and his 23-year-old brother Edward Clark openly …
White Supremacist Arrested After Calling a Domestic Terror Attack ‘a Dry Run’ Read More »
Sizable wildfires burning up and down California in late 2018 left dozens of people dead, destroyed an entire Northern California town, Paradise, and the heat and speed of least two enormously destructive fires — the Woolsey Fire in the south of the state and the Camp Fire in the north — overwhelmed safety measures and firefighters: …
