User:Atsmf83/Empire News

Empire News is a satirical and comedy fake-news website that was started in 2014. The website publishes fake, exaggerated, and outlandish news stories that satirize celebrities, politicians,

current events, and local news. The website has had numerous viral articles that spread as "real news," and were later debunked by snopes.com, among other fact-or-fiction websites. Some of these include "Actress Betty White, 93, Dyes Peacefully In Her Los Angeles Home," "Unborn Baby Becomes Pregnant While Still Inside The Womb," and "Charles Manson Granted Parole."

Empire News refers to itself as an "entertainment website" and according to their disclaimer, the website and social media pages owned by Empire News are do not use real names "except in cases of public figure and celebrity parody or satirization." The disclaimer itself is not located on the main page of the website, but instead via a link in their page footer. The site is very active in commenting and responding to criticism on their social media pages, and often mocks or jokes about people who take their stories as fact. As of July 2017, their Facebook page has over 21,000 followers, and their website averages over a quarter of a million hits a month.

History
Empire News is a spin-off website of a more niche satirical news website, EmpireSports.co, which was started in 2013. The original website published fake news and satirical stories that were specifically aimed at sports celebrities and exaggerated news. Originally EmpireSports had articles that were only published by website owner A. Michael Smith, but throughout the year other writers were added, including Robert Winland, whose story "WWE Legend The Undertaker Found Dead In Texas Home" was the first major viral article for the publication, bringing in over 2 million page views before the article was debunked by The Undertaker's then wife, Michelle McCool, in an interview with The Independent.

Winland was later the subject of an interview with The Washington Post, "A Q&A With a Professional Internet Troll," in which he discussed writing fake and satirical news for Empire Sports, and pointed out his desire to do it because, among other reasons, "The money is right. "

In early 2014, Empire News was registered and launched with just a few articles. The site was made as a companion to EmpireSports, with a broader audience that included celebrities, politics, entertainment, and parody of local and bizarre news.

The first viral article for Empire News was "Charles Manson Granted Parole," which was published around the time that Charles Manson was having his parole hearing. In reality, he was denied parole, but the article spread throughout social media, and was picked up by local news affiliates as real, before later being debunked.

The first articles posted to Empire News were all posted by writers from Empire Sports, including Smith, Winland, and "Bob The Empire News Potato," who is listed on the website as Editor-in-Chief. Later viral stories, including one about the Boston Marathon Bomber being severely beaten and paralyzed while in prison, which was shared on by social media users over 250,000 times, were written by Raoul Stockton.

In 2014, Empire News was included in a list of "satire" websites that were to be flagged by Facebook so as to not appear in user's timelines as often, and to avoid spreading of public misinformation. Facebook seemingly abandoned their flagging concept in 2016, leading up to the Presidential election. Fake and satire news were later "blamed" for the election results, which saw Donald Trump sworn in as the 45th President of the United States.

As of 2015, EmpireSports was no longer updated, with the last article being posted March 7th, 2015. Empire News adds approximately 20-30 new articles monthly.

Both Empire News and Empire Sports were started and are owned by A. Michael Smith, under the company EmpireNews LLC.

Disclaimer
Since its launch, Empire News has hosted an about/disclaimer page that reads:"Empire News is intended for entertainment purposes only. Our website and social media content uses only fictional names, except in cases of public figure and celebrity parody or satirization. Any other use of real names is accidental and coincidental."Although the page is often lumped in with "fake news" websites that are designed only to generate ad-revenue and spread lies or misinformation, the owners of the site have often said that they liken Empire News more to The Onion, another popular online satirical news website, which was created strictly for comedic purposes.

List of Serious Interpretations
Many of the articles on Empire News have been picked up by legitimate media as facts, and reported.

A story published that indicated that Coca-Cola had recalled over 2 million bottles of their soda with the name 'Michael' on them thanks to a disgruntled employee adding dirt to the bottles, were shared hundreds of thousands of times on Facebook and Twitter, and gained further traction as a legitimate story when shared by American Idol contestant Jessica Meuse. WNYT, an NBC affiliate in New York, also reported on the story as true, lending credence to the original article. WNYT later retracted the story.

One article indicated, shortly after the Boston Marathon Bombing, that one of the perpetrators, 22-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been "severely beaten" in prison, and would likely never walk again. The story stated that he was allowed to be beaten by guards who were paid off by white supremacists, but despite this, the story went viral, with most re-posting it with positive comments, excited that Tsarnaev had been injured. The story was shared over 1 million times on social media. It was later debunked by Snopes.

In September of 2014, Empire News published a story by Raoul Stockton titled "Meteorologists Predict Record-Shattering Snowfall Coming Soon." The article stated that a massive snowstorm would be hitting almost the entire United States, with some places receiving "over 50 times " their current record snowfall. Although the outlandishness of the article was received by many and shared on social media as people who were seemingly "in" on the joke, the article gained traction over Facebook and Twitter, being shared hundreds of thousands of times. The story was later debunked by Hoax-Slayer, The International Business Times , Fox News affiliate in North Carolina, WGHP Fox8 , and Maryland's The Baltimore Sun , among others.

The most viral story ever published by the site was titled, originally, "Actress Betty White, 92, Dyes Peacefully in Her Los Angeles Home." It was published on September 3rd, 2014, and almost immediately went viral, being re-posted on Facebook and Twitter millions of times. This story, unlike others in the "fake news" category, were picked up by dozens of media outlets who all seemed "in" on the joke itself. As the headline was a rather obvious gag and a blatant homophone, many major news websites, including E! Online, The Huffington Post , CNN , The Washington Post , The LA Times , and CBS affiliate The Bull , informed readers that they had been duped, but praised Empire News for turning the "death hoax" on its head."From E! Online: Clearly, fans didn't continue reading the article, because the entire thing was a tongue-in-cheek 'interview' with the star's agent about how White's not a natural blond, along with purported quotes from Betty, herself, about her brunette to blond transformation."The story was later talked about by Ellen DeGeneres on her daytime talkshow, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, in a segment where the comedian pointed out that the author of the Betty White piece had the byline of "Bob The Empire News Potato," and suggested that people who fall for these stories needed "a better B.S. detector."