We live in a strange world indeed and naturally, some very strange stuff makes headlines now and again. A Facebook group called Weird News has been sharing odd news from around the globe. “The more bizarre the better,” they say. Bored Panda compiled a list of our favorites and keep reading to find out how to filter out fact from fiction… McDaniel had deliberately created a fake news website, just for fun. He wanted to see just how gullible people could be. He tried to make sure his stories were too crazy to be true, and shared links to them in several Facebook groups. Some stories were tied to real news events, but mostly, he just made stuff up. Shortly after launching the site, McDaniel wrote a post to tell people what he was up to. He made sure to link it to each article. Still, some people were none the wiser. And things started getting a bit too serious. Whoopi Goldberg told a talk show that one of the stories had actually endangered her life. McDaniel took down his site not long after launching it. According to Huge Domains, UndergroundNewsreport.com is now on sale for $8,395. And McDaniel’s experiment has been used to showcase just how deadly fake news can be. Fake news isn’t a new thing. As researcher Amy Watson wrote, “presenting false information as fact was utilized as a means of propaganda during the First and Second World Wars, and by the 21st century became a major problem.” And the Oxford dictionary announced, “After much discussion, debate, and research, the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2016 is… post-truth.” According to Oxford, “post-truth is an adjective defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’. So, how do you know when someone is not letting the facts get in the way of a good story? Keep reading to find out. If you’re ever in doubt, there are loads of fact-checking organizations that verify information on a daily basis. There are also resources like this one that name and shame fake news sites. Have you ever fallen for fake news? Do you think any of the weird news headlines here are untrue? Let us know in the comments. Follow Bored Panda on Google News! Follow us on Flipboard.com/@boredpanda! Please use high-res photos without watermarks Ooops! Your image is too large, maximum file size is 8 MB.
