Drudge Report Presents Satire As News, Internet Sucks It Up

You won't find any mention of it on the Drudge Report now, but the conservative "news" aggregating mega site linked an article from EAGnews that was itself content from satire site, Dailyleak.org. Within hours this disinformation had been spread all over the Internet, including ATS.

The original satire piece:

Michelle Obama teaming up with Monsanto to promote children’s food

EAGnews.org is currently down. My guess is that the site has been linked to so many times since being on the front page of DR that it's unable to keep up with the requests. So how does this crap not get filtered out by DR? Turns out EAGnews is held in some esteem by some among the right wing, from The Blaze:

Founded by Kyle Olson in 2007, the organization has produced several documentary exposés, including “A Tale of Two Missions” with Juan Williams, a book titled “Indoctrination,” and a ground-breaking report on union-affiliated health insurance in Wisconsin.
Most recently, we released “RE-CREATING AMERICA: Cultural Sensitivity in Wisconsin Schools.”
Olson has made numerous appearances on the Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, The Blaze, NPR and MSNBC. EAG’s work has been cited by the Drudge Report, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck.
In addition to our regular writing, EAG publishes a daily email newsletter – the Ed Reform RADAR – and a weekly email newsletter, the Wisconsin School Reformer. Sign up to receive them free of charge at EAGnews.org.

Of course, the link has been removed from DR but notice a complete lack of acknowledgement for their mistake. Fortunately, the sites that feed at the DR trough and others have identified the source:

Epoch Times

The Drudge Report on Friday focused on an article about first lady Michelle Obama allegedly partnering with Monsanto to provide “healthy’ genetically modified food to children,” a report says.

The report was posted on EAGnews.org, a site run by the Education Action Group Foundation, which is described as a non-partisan and non-profit from Michigan. However, the website was down after Drudge made it the front-page story, likely due to the massive amount of Web traffic. It, however, can be accessed via a Google cache.

AZ Central

I admit I'm a gambler. But this is just easy money.

The Drudge Report this morning (Friday) posted this story about First Lady Michelle Obama "partnering" with the Monsanto Corp. to "promote nutritional foods for kids."

According to the news-like report at the DailyLeak.org, the agro-chemical company "will spend $50 million over five years on a campaign to market 'healthy' genetically modified food to children," something that Ms. Obama supposedly believes will "improve how we make and sell food in this country."

There are real-life journalism reasons why this story is a fake.

I'm not disparaging anyone who bought into this, thousands, maybe millions of people were buzzing about it today. My point is simply to expose and document how disinformation is spread through networks of linked content, how quickly it can go viral and to point out how even the seemingly more mainstream sources are easily duped. We're quick to jump all over disinformation in the MSM but we need to be even more critical of the (dis)information flowing through the network of "alternative news" sites.

Drudge sucks and they NEVER admit their errors or post redactions.

That being said ... this story was picked up everywhere. Probably because it was very believable .. given the excessively close ties the Obama administration has with Monsanto.

a reply to: FlyersFan

No, really. It was a complete "WTF?!" to me as Michelle Obama is worldwide known for her ideal of healthy food and providing children with it. If you can't accept that, it might be an error on your view of things.

Yep, they're so much about healthy that they still want you to eat up grains and cut out all fat, not just the bad fat. I'm a bad mother for wanting my son to have whole milk and other healthy fats in his food and skip the grains as much as possible in favor of mostly veggies and fruits with proteins.

a reply to: ManFromEurope
Uh .. excuse me? What are you talking about? My view of things is just fine.

The hoaxers did a good job. The Obama administration has close ties with Monsanto. So they took it one step further. That's how a "good" hoax is done ... make sure it's not so far out of range that people won't buy into it.

And as far as Michelle Obama being known 'world wide for her ideal of healthy food' ... not really. Guess you've missed all those stories about school kids complaining about how poor the 'obama lunches' are.



I'm so happy for you that you didn't believe the story. Really.
But it was a very believable one ... all things considered.

funny thing is, when i saw that piece... my response was basically a shoulder shrug... i wouldn't put anything past them these days... thank god it was just satire though...

but i definitely did find it odd to see "healthy" and "GMO" in the same sentence...

originally posted by: FlyersFan
Drudge sucks and they NEVER admit their errors or post redactions.

That being said ... this story was picked up everywhere. Probably because it was very believable .. given the excessively close ties the Obama administration has with Monsanto.

Exactly. It was not written in the style of typical satire and had the look of professional journalism. It contained enough reference to a real thing (the ties between Monsanto, Obama and let's be honest, MOST of DC), that it was believable. My first thought upon reading it was, "Wow, this is really appalling but given Monsanto's reach in DC, could it be true?"

It's concerning how fast and far disinformation can be spread once it's picked up by a site like DR. Many of the sites that re-post content linked by DR are themselves blogs that give the false appearance of legitimacy. Very few ever post a redaction and so this disinformation will sit for years, waiting for unsuspecting people to stumble upon it.

Have you seen Moochelle as of late?
She be fat... how healthy is dat?
Baby got back....back fat.

originally posted by: ketsuko
I'm a bad mother for wanting my son to have whole milk and other healthy fats in his food

Fat from whole milk is NOT healthy! Are you serious? In fact, milk is is one of the most UNhealthy things a person can drink.
Dangers of Cow's Milk

“Ingredients” Added to Cow’s Milk
A Veritable Hormone Cocktail
Nerve and epidermal growth factors
Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone
Pus: National averages show at least 322 million cell-counts of pus per glass!
Blood Cells: The USDA allows up to 1.5 million white blood cells per milliliter of commonly-sold milk.

You can rag on Michelle Obama all you want, but maybe you should listen to her on this one... I immediately knew that this story was BS, because she DOES know what she's talking about as regards nutrition.

originally posted by: Benevolent Heretic
she DOES know what she's talking about as regards nutrition.

Well ...

Healthy Living

“Before coming to the White House, I struggled, as a working parent with a traveling, busy husband, to figure out how to feed my kids healthy, and I didn’t get it right. Our pediatrician had to pull me aside and point out some things that were going wrong. I thought to myself, if a Princeton and Harvard educated professional woman doesn’t know how to adequately feed her kids, then what are other parents going through who don’t have access to the information I have?

But maybe school lunches actually have GMOs ?

Maybe Michelle *IS* involved and they use "satires" to cast an illusion that it can't *possibly* be true ?

GMO Free School Lunch Options

GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS AND THEIR RISKS TO OUR CHILDREN

8 Reasons Why I Will Say No To School Lunches For My Kids

GM-Free Schools Introduction


Hmmm.

a reply to: theantediluvian

S&F I was suckered by this hoax, I was wanting to goto the whitehouse.gov to look at the official announcement but I got distracted. Really the damage has been done, we know its a hoax but potentially millions who saw the article with not no its a hoax.

Reminds me of the pregnant woman held up by Obama motorcade, I think this was a hoax as well but I have seen it on many other news websites.

Mentally filing this in the birther, obama hates amurica, obama hates white people, impeach obama, and all the other bs the right wing puts out on a daily basis.

WTG ATS for exposing this hoax!

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

And I buy my milk from a local dairy that uses no artificial hormones or antibiotics ...

But if you are going to have milk, you shouldn't be bothering with the 1% or skim stuff. By the time you refine it down that far, all you have left are the sugars.

Also, since switching to whole milk and butter, our cholesterol numbers have improved and we've lost weight, and studies suggest we're not alone.

So, you do what you feel you must, but I've had good results with it.

a reply to: FlyersFan

I don't want to sidetrack this thread, but yes, there was a time that she was uneducated on nutrition, but she has learned a lot since then. She still has it wrong in a few areas, IMO. Like drinking cow's milk.

I am not worried about Michelle Obama and Monsanto. I am worried about Kiera Cameron and Sonmanto. Sonmanto is manufacturing bio weapons from the future man.....the future! Maybe Drudge report fact checkers will run with my story. Here is the background on Sonmanto

By the way this is a joke

LDragonFire - Reminds me of the pregnant woman held up by Obama motorcade

Wasn't that a DRUDGE special item??

originally posted by: Benevolent Heretic
She still has it wrong in a few areas, IMO. Like drinking cow's milk.

Oh man .. don't rag on cows milk ... ice cold cows milk with oreos to dip in it. Man ... I miss milk ... and oreos. I'd rather see kids drinking milk than drinking the crap they do now ... sodas and the other garbage 'juice' drinks that are really just pure sugar. Well .. kids gotta have milk IMHO.

originally posted by: LDragonFire
WTG ATS for exposing this hoax!

theantediluvian gets a great big star for this one.

ETA: Ooops I missed your link to the original piece. Yep.

Looks like it started here: DailyLeak

But I'm not sure. That's a satire site like the onion. FaceBook played a huge role, as is typical. Then, as usual, the rabid haters triggered by the name Michelle Obama couldn't wait to eat it up, I guess.

When I saw it, I was very confused that this would happen, as, as I mentioned in another thread, I'm almost positive she is against GMO foods and has spoken about that before. I think when they were planting the White House garden, but I can't be sure. I can't be sure of anything anymore.

a reply to: FlyersFan

"That being said ... this story was picked up everywhere. Probably because it was very believable .. given the excessively close ties the Obama administration has with Monsanto."

Beautiful segue to beaning Barry! But that's okay.

The problem is that today the MSM (and let's throw Drudge into that pot) wants to whip you into a frenzy of outrage against "them". And we know who "them" is. And you know what? This sells the hell out of cars, hotel reservations, erectile dysfunction pills, and reverse mortgages. We are suckers with a capital "suck".

I think it is time to throw open the window and yell "I'm still mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!"

originally posted by: ketsuko
I'm a bad mother for wanting my son to have whole milk and other healthy fats in his food and skip the grains as much as possible in favor of mostly veggies and fruits with proteins.

And who said that you're a bad mother?

People take things to extremes. I mean EXTREMES! Michelle Obama recommends 1% or skimmed milk and you turn it into "I'm a bad mother"... Such hyperbole! I don't think I've EVER heard Michelle say or even suggest that anyone who doesn't abide by her recommendations is a bad parent...