Brooke Binkowski

Brooke Binkowski is a veteran, award-winning journalist who spent more than a decade reporting on immigration, post-conflict, and humanitarian issues at the U.S.-Mexico border before making the switch to fighting disinformation and propaganda online. Her work has taken her from Argentina to Alaska and everywhere in between. Before joining TruthOrFiction.com, she reported for National Public Radio, CNN, CBS, and then spent several years running editorial operations at Snopes.com.

Writing desk and stacks of books.

Did Leeds Trinity University Ban Capital Letters to Avoid Frightening Students?

Disinformation, Education, Fact Checks, Viral Content / By /

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 »

Michael Avenatti.

Does a Photograph Prove that Michael Avenatti (or Keith Ellison) Badly Beat a Woman?

Disinformation, Fact Checks, Politics, Viral Content / By /

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 »

Is a Caravan of Central American Asylum-Seekers Demanding Special Treatment?

Disinformation, Fact Checks, Politics, Viral Content / By /

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 »

Menstrual pad.

Are Young People Boiling Menstrual Pads to Get High?

Fact Checks, Viral Content / By /

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 »

Woman at a window taking photos of the inside of a home.

Facebook Spread Fake News, Hired ‘Trackers’ to Smear Critics

Analysis, Disinformation, Reporting / By /

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 »

Tiki torches at sunset.

White Supremacist Arrested After Calling a Domestic Terror Attack ‘a Dry Run’

Analysis, Social Media, Terrorism / By /

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 …

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Did United States President Donald Trump Threaten to Withhold Disaster Funding from California?

Disinformation, Environment, Fact Checks, Natural Disasters, Politics / By /

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: …

Did United States President Donald Trump Threaten to Withhold Disaster Funding from California? Read More »

William Shatner.

Did William Shatner Record a Christmas Album With Iggy Pop and Henry Rollins?

Entertainment, Fact Checks / By /

As people began to get ready for the holidays in November 2018, social media suddenly became aware of an odd little rumor that had evidently passed under the radar months before. Apparently William Shatner, an actor and performer who is perhaps best known for his years playing Captain James T. Kirk in the Star Trek …

Did William Shatner Record a Christmas Album With Iggy Pop and Henry Rollins? Read More »

Shepard Fairey street art encouraging people to vote.

Hundreds of Wrapped Voting Machines Discovered in a Georgia Warehouse?

Fact Checks, Politics / By /

The American midterm elections on November 6, 2018 transformed what is normally a relatively sleepy affair that receives little coverage into a bitter, heavily-tracked series of races around the country punctuated by scandals, violence, and unexpected twists and turns. Georgia’s gubernatorial election attracted particular attention because its Republican candidate, Brian Kemp, was serving as its …

Hundreds of Wrapped Voting Machines Discovered in a Georgia Warehouse? Read More »