Fake Sports News - Is Anything Sacred?

[kach22i]

Today a regular at the cigar lounge hands me his phone and says read this, I wasn't sure what to make of it, it sounded too good or too terrible to be true.

He was however very convinced.

Grow muscle without even exercising, 165% increase in higher brain functions so on and so forth.

When another friend and I tried to Google the same article, neither one of us could find it, was supposed to be Tom Brady banned from the NFL for using some drug or food supplement, the alleged ESPN article was unfindable.

So I get home hours later and give it another try, found the article below.

No, Those Fake ESPN Stories About Tom Brady And J.J. Watt Doing Drugs Aren't Real
Tim Marchman
1/20/16 7:34pm
https://deadspin.com/no-those-fake-espn-stories-about-tom-brady-and-j-j-wa-1754149481

If you’ve used the internet over the past year and a half or so—and especially if you’ve visited the front page of Yahoo in that time—you may have seen some strange, seemingly ESPN-branded stories about NFL stars getting caught up in scandals you’ve never heard about anywhere else and promoting the use of sketchy nutritional supplements. Earlier today, reader James wrote in to point out one such story:......................

The main question here is whether ESPN is unaware this is going on, doesn’t care, or just has no idea what to do about it......................

............Ryan Hasman (the author) obviously doesn’t exist

How is it three years after this Fake News was started it's still making it's way into our lives?
.
Messing with politics is one thing, leave the NFL and NASCAR (another thing he fell for) alone.

[M.D. Holloway]

He could go from doughy to a good cut in about 6 months, 3 if he worked really hard at it.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by M.D. Holloway

He could go from doughy to a good cut in about 6 months, 3 if he worked really hard at it.

The dude with the cell phone is lean already, problems keeping weight on actually.

He was stoked that Tom Brady was getting cut for six games or some nonsense.

Said he felt bad for one of the stock car guys forced to retire early (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) for same drug use - just more Fake Sports News.

Actual sports news below.

APRIL 25, 2017
Dale Earnhardt Jr. to Retire From Racing
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/25/sports/dale-earnhardt-jr-retires-nascar.html

His 2016 concussion was his second in four years, and led him to wonder if he would ever return to racing.

“I just wanted the opportunity to go out on my own terms,” he said.

[wdfifteen]

Creatin fake news and click bait is big business in Macedonia. They have a school for it there. I understand it is the country's biggest industry and the authorities there have no interest in regulating it.

[DanielDudley]

Wait. It sounds like you are saying that people have something to gain by lying.
How could that be ?

[svandamme]

I think y'all are fake news !

[kach22i]

It's going to take a while.

I ran into the Fake Sport News consumer last night at the cigar lounge.

I told him that the ESPN website had been mocked going back three years, and gave him my cell phone to read the article I posted in this forum.

He didn't want to believe it, handed back my phone after skimming the article and said Tom Brady for a fact tested positive for illegal drugs.

I reminded him that his fake article claimed a six month suspension this season, and that didn't happen because Brady was still playing football, no difference he was digging in further, taking a defensive stance.

Half lie? Brady didn't play 4-games in 2015 (deflategate).

https://www.si.com/nfl/2016/04/25/new-england-patriots-deflategate-tom-brady-suspension-reinstated

So I let things cool down, then have him read the Dale Earnhardt Jr. to Retire From Racing article I posted earlier in this thread.

He reads it a little more intently than the last one, then hands me back the phone without a comment - total silence.

I planted a seed, going to take time to grow roots.

This is why getting fake news out of someone's head is so difficult, it feeds on our preconceived biases.

This guy doesn't like Tom Brady, fair enough, I have no problem with that. He mentioned the Halloween candy thing as another reason to hate Brady the first time we talked about this.

Why Gisele Bundchen Gave Away Her Kids' Halloween Candy
Why Gisele Bundchen Gave Away Her Kids' Halloween Candy - ABC News

“We don’t really have that kind of sugar in our house,” Bundchen told the magazine. “I let them try one [piece], but they really only had one bite and then they didn’t want it anymore. So I told them if they didn’t like it, I was going to give it away to other kids and they actually let me give their candy away."

I know ABC was spoofed before, in fact I'm a bit nervous even to post a link from them a year after finding out. Damage is done, be wary of fake ESPN articles you see as click bait.

The Real News About Fake News - ABC News

A study from Stanford University released recently showed that more than 80 percent of middle school students couldn’t tell the difference between a news story and sponsored content on a popular website. And only one in four high school students could identify a fake Twitter account as lacking a blue checkmark, a signal to users that an account is legitimate.