c/fake-news-autopsy

My aunt sent me a wild story about a 'secret tunnel' under our town hall

I spent a whole afternoon at the local library checking old blueprints (and found nothing but a big storm drain). Now I ask her for a link before I believe anything. Anyone else have a relative who's a constant source of weird local rumors?

3 comments

kelly.patricia•5h ago

I saw a wild story about a 'zombie deer' outbreak in Ohio and decided to check it myself.

I spent an hour on the Ohio DNR website and found the original report, which was about a single, contained case from 2023, not a new outbreak like the viral post claimed.

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lee18•1d ago

Serious question, the 'migrant caravan' story from 2018 changed how I check news for good.

I was at a family cookout in Ohio when my uncle started going off about a huge group of people coming to invade the country. He showed me a video on his phone that looked scary, with a massive crowd. I went home and spent maybe two hours digging, and found the original footage was from a 2017 event in Honduras, not the border. The numbers were also way off, like by thousands. It made me realize a viral clip can be years old and totally out of context. How do you guys handle it when someone shows you a video as proof of something happening right now?

3 comments

barbara_kim93•1d ago

Tried to fact-check that 'missing child' post from my neighborhood group using just the police website and found nothing, which made me wonder how many local panics start from zero evidence.

I spent an hour cross-referencing names and dates on the county sheriff's active cases page after seeing the frantic shares, and the complete lack of any official record has me asking if we should require a source link before hitting share on those emotional posts.

3 comments