There is no such thing as the Denver Guardian, despite that Facebook post you saw

[G_j]

http://www.denverpost.com/2016/11/05/there-is-no-such-thing-as-the-denver-guardian/

Anti-Hillary Clinton “story” is the latest in a wave of fake partisan news flooding Facebook

--

The “Denver Guardian” is not a real news source and definitely isn’t Denver’s oldest news source.

On Nov. 5, a story began circulating on Facebook (at points gaining 100 shares per minute) with the headline “FBI AGENT SUSPECTED IN HILLARY EMAIL LEAKS FOUND DEAD IN APPARENT MURDER-SUICIDE,” and hosted at denverguardian.com.

The only problem is that there is no such thing as “The Denver Guardian.”

Let’s run down the list of red flags:

The domain denverguardian.com was first registered in July 2016 and is hosted by GoDaddy.
This story is the only story showing up under the “News” section and all other sections are turning up errors.
The address listed for the newsroom is a tree in a parking lot next to a vacant building on Colfax.
Half of the modules on the site are unfinished (see screenshot).
The site looks suspiciously like “The Baltimore Gazette,” another fake news site that The Baltimore City Paper called out in September for sharing a false news story about police violence and breastfeeding.
Some of the unfinished portions of the website for the "Denver Guardian."Screenshot via "Denver Guardian"Some of the unfinished portions of the website for the “Denver Guardian” website.

This false story is one of thousands of fake news stories being circulated around Facebook by fly-by-night “hyperpartisan” sites this election cycle, according an investigation by Buzzfeed News.

[ColemanMaskell]

1. Cool. I knew Sputnik was feeding in fake news, but that one's over and above. Worthy of Onion et al

Thanks for posting that. I don't use Facebook so I probably wouldn't otherwise see it.

Your write-up is pretty funny too. "The address listed for the newsroom is a tree in a parking lot ... " -- That's genius for specificity. Hard to believe the tree has its own address, but that type of phrase brings the story to life.

If they generate enough of these, Snopes, FactCheck, PolitiFact et al won't be able to keep up to speed with them on debunking. Wonder if the stories are being software-generated. The stories probably have to be coming from Russia, who else would be able to generate quality work like that? Not the right wing rant sites that can't write their way out of a paper bag, so to speak.

Great laughs. Thanks for sharing.

Even if nobody believes the stories, the known presence of a lot of fake news will help Trump in his denials of real stories, like all the women that have come forward to speak out about his behavior, even the alleged rape of the 13-year-old girl 20 years ago, if she comes out in public with a delayed press conference -- Trump can just say it's a planted fake story and his band of faithful will probably accept that. So, clever tactic. Has to be Russia behind it, I'm thinking.

[gratuitous]

2. Another outlet of the Talon News Service?

Was the byline Gannon or Guckert?

[drm604]

4. Gannon or Guckert

Wow, it's been a while since I've seen a reference to that. I wonder what happened to that guy.

[gratuitous]

5. Weird, isn't it?

An ersatz journalist shows up at the daily presser, asks incredibly friendly questions of the press secretary, doesn't work for a recognized news outlet, his name shows up signing in but not out on the White House visitor logs, has an online profile for a gay dating service, works under two different names, and nobody in the popular media bats an eye or even remembers him.

[drm604]

3. That stupid thing was on my FB feed this morning.

I hid it, otherwise I'd reply to it with that article.

[G_j]

6. at points gaining 100 shares per minute!

that's insane