National Report

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National Report is a troll "news" site. Unlike satirical sites such as The Onion or The Daily Mash, which offer sarcastic commentary on world events, the National Report is a bit more sinister: it deliberately attempts to deceive and spark outrage (and generate clickbait traffic) with joke-free fake news stories that report on outrageous or alarming fictional events as if they were true. (Sample headline: Texas Town Quarantined After Family Of Five Test Positive For The Ebola Virus.)

National Report specializes in exploiting Poe's Law by pandering to cranky (usually social conservative) American beliefs: the site has the names and photos of Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin prominently across its masthead, despite neither having any connection to the site. Stories are quite often picked up by others and treated either as fact or as examples of wingnuttery, according to their disposition.

During the government shutdown in October 2013, Fox News reporter Anna Kooiman repeated as fact a National Report spoof about President Obama spending his own money to keep a museum of Muslim culture open (even though it is privately funded and therefore was unaffected by the shutdown). She apologized on Twitter the following day after many other sources spotted the mistake and comedians made fun of Fox.

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