Paul Horner

Paul Horner is an American writer and contributor to fake news websites, whose stories have been said to have had a significant impact on the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Lead writer for National Report

He was lead writer of the website National Report since the site's launch.[1][2] One of his widest-spread fake stories was a piece claiming that artist Banksy had been arrested and his identity revealed as Paul Horner, which Horner posted in 2013 and was re-circulated in 2014.[3][4] Because of one of Horner's stories, former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer had to go on live television to insist that she was not implementing mandatory gay to straight programs in all Arizona schools K-12.[5] Fox News did a live broadcast about one of Horner's stories as being factual; Barack Obama had personally funded a Muslim museum so it could stay open during the government shutdown of 2013.[6][7]

Departure and launch of News Examiner

Horner left National Report in 2014, launched News Examiner at the start of 2015 and also started numerous websites including cnn.com.de, cbsnews.com.co and nbc.com.co to post fake news articles,[8] as well as ABCnews.com.co.[9] In 2015 he wrote a fake story that Yelp was suing South Park that received wide circulation,[10] as did another story that a man named "Paul Horner" had undergone the world's first head transplant.[11]

By 2015 he had written several fake stories about DeQuincy, Louisiana, which said that the town had been under attack from gay zombies, had legalized polygamy, and had banned twerking, discussing the color of any dress (in response to the viral story about the dress), and Koreans; he told a local news station that he originally targeted it because "my friend Brandon Adams said there is like 4,000 people that live there, and all they do is drink Old Milwaukee's Best and beat their wives" and that he kept targeting it because he had received death and castration threats in response to his first story.[12] One of his stories about DeQuincy, and one that he says is one of his favorites; was about a man who stopped a robbery in a diner by quoting Pulp Fiction;[13] the story was posted on the Miramax website.[14]

2016 U.S. presidential election

His stories had an "enormous impact" on the 2016 U.S. presidential election according to CBS News;[15] they consistently appeared in Google's top news search results, were shared widely on Facebook, and were taken seriously and shared by third parties such as Trump presidential campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, Eric Trump, ABC News, and the Fox News Channel.[16][17][18] Horner later claimed that his work during this period was intended "to make Trump's supporters look like idiots for sharing my stories".[19]

In a November 2016 interview with The Washington Post, Horner expressed regret for the role his fake news stories played in the election and surprise at how gullible people were in treating his stories as news.[20][21][22][20][23][24][25][13][26] In February 2017 Horner said, "I truly regret my comment about saying that I think Donald Trump is in the White House because of me. I know all I did was attack him and his supporters and got people not to vote for him. When I said that comment it was because I was confused how this evil got elected President and I thought maybe instead of hurting his campaign, maybe I had helped it. My intention was to get his supporters NOT to vote for him and I know for a fact that I accomplished that goal. The far right, a lot of the Bible thumpers and Alt-Right were going to vote for him regardless, but I know I swayed so many that were on the fence."[27]

In December 2016, while speaking on Anderson Cooper 360, Horner said that all news is fake news and called CNN "fake news", which was one month before Donald Trump leveled the same criticism at that network.[28][29][30]

2017 and beyond

Horner spoke at the European Parliament in March, speaking about fake news and the importance of fact checking.[31] According to a 2017 BuzzFeed article, Horner stated that a story of his about a rape festival in India helped generate over $250,000 in donations to GiveIndia, a site that helps rape victims in India.[32][33][34] Horner was in many documentaries about the subject of fake news including one by Orange S.A..[35][36] Horner said he dislikes being grouped with people who write fake news solely to be misleading. "They just write it just to write fake news, like there's no purpose, there's no satire, there's nothing clever. All the stories I wrote were to make Trump's supporters look like idiots for sharing my stories."[37] The Huffington Post called Horner a "Performance Artist".[38] Horner has been referred to as a "hoax artist" by outlets such as the Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune.[39] PolitiFact and the Washington Post both call Horner the Internet's most prolific hoax artist.[40][41]

References

  1. ↑ Caitlin Dewey (January 21, 2015). "Did Facebook just kill the Web's burgeoning industry?". Washington Post. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
  2. ↑ "This is not an interview with Banksy". Washington Post. Retrieved 23 October 2014.
  3. ↑ LaCapria, Kim (November 2, 2016). "Snopes' Field Guide to Fake News(CNN) Sites and Hoax Purveyors". Snopes.
  4. ↑ Hathaway, Jay (October 20, 2014). "Banksy Has Not Been Arrested, And His Name Isn't Paul Horner". Gawker.
  5. ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/23/jan-brewer-hoax-gay-conversion-therapy_n_3806852.html
  6. ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/10/07/fox-friends-fails-on-obama-muslim-museum-connection-no-surprise-here/
  7. ↑ http://www.mediaite.com/tv/jimmy-kimmel-gives-gullible-fox-news-a-shocking-tip-about-obama/
  8. ↑ Lince, Tim (September 15, 2015). "Notorious ‘cybersquatter’ advises brands: ‘know your target and adapt your approach’". World Trademark Review.
  9. ↑ Horgan, Richard (March 14, 2016). "Three Strikes and This Fake News Site Is Out". www.adweek.com.
  10. ↑ Huff, Steve (October 21, 2015). "Yelp is Not Suing South Park for $10 Million". Maxim.
  11. ↑ Hernandez, Vittorio (13 July 2015). "Hoax Alert: South Africa Didn’t Beat Italy In Performing World's 1st Successful Head Transplant Surgery". International Business Times AU.
  12. ↑ Cooper, Michael (May 15, 2015). "DeQuincy targeted by fake news site ... again". KPLC News.
  13. 1 2 Hedegaard, Erik (29 November 2016), "How a Fake Newsman Accidentally Helped Trump Win the White House - Paul Horner thought he was trolling Trump supporters – but after the election, the joke was on him", Rolling Stone, retrieved 29 November 2016
  14. ↑ "Man quotes PULP FICTION - stops robbery". Miramax. December 5, 2013.
  15. ↑ "Facebook fake news creator claims he put Trump in White House". CBS News. November 17, 2016.
  16. ↑ Jacobson, Louis (November 17, 2016). "No, someone wasn't paid $3,500 to protest Donald Trump". Politifact.
  17. ↑ Daro, Ishmael N. (October 28, 2016). "How A Prankster Convinced People The Amish Would Win Trump The Election". BuzzFeed.
  18. ↑ French, Sally (November 18, 2016). "This person makes $10,000 a month writing fake news". MarketWatch.
  19. ↑ Bratu, Becky; et al. (December 15, 2016). "Tall Tale or Satire? Authors of So-Called 'Fake News' Feel Misjudged". NBC News.
  20. 1 2 Dewey, Caitlin (November 17, 2016). "Facebook fake-news writer: ‘I think Donald Trump is in the White House because of me’". Washington Post.
  21. ↑ Neidig, Harper (November 17, 2016). "Fake news giant: I feel bad about putting Trump in the White House". TheHill.
  22. ↑ Genzlinger, Neil (November 17, 2016). "‘Duck Dynasty’ Legacy: Real, Fake and Upfront About It". The New York Times.
  23. ↑ Sykes, Charles (November 25, 2016). "Donald Trump and the Rise of Alt-Reality Media". Politico.
  24. ↑ Binckes, Jeremy (November 17, 2016). ""People are definitely dumber": Thanks to Facebook, a viral fake-news writer is making $10,000 a month". Salon.
  25. ↑ Madigan, Charles M. (November 21, 2016). "The danger of a leader who believes what 'people are saying ...'". Chicago Tribune.
  26. ↑ "Comedian Who Writes Fake News Claims: Trump Won The Election Because Of Me". Inside Edition. November 18, 2016.
  27. ↑ Welch, Dennis (February 16, 2017). "Fake news writer 'regrets' taking credit for Trump victory". KTVK.
  28. ↑ "Fake News Writer to Anderson Cooper: CNN Spreads False Info, I Educate People, It's Satire". YouTube. December 12, 2016.
  29. ↑ "Fake news writer: It's satire".Anderson Cooper 360. CNN.
  30. ↑ Collinson, Stephen (February 16, 2017). "An amazing moment in history: Donald Trump's press conference". CNN.
  31. ↑ "Fake news in social media as reality shapers". Streamovations. March 8, 2017.
  32. ↑ Daro, Ishmael N. (March 9, 2017). "A Live TV Debate About Fake News Went Completely Off The Rails And It Was Amazing To Watch". BuzzFeed.
  33. ↑ Nashrulla, Tasneem (November 8, 2013). "An American Website Wrote A Satirical Article About An Indian Rape Festival And Many People Thought It Was Real". BuzzFeed.
  34. ↑ Madan, Karuna (November 21, 2013). "US website’s ‘rape festival’ report sparks uproar". Gulf News India.
  35. ↑ http://actu.orange.fr/monde/videos/decouverte-a-la-rencontre-de-paul-horner-maitre-inconteste-de-la-fake-news-VID0000002kE3a.html
  36. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/franceinfovideo/videos/1473776965999130/?pnref=story
  37. ↑ Bratu, Becky; Calabrese, Erin; Chirbas, Kurt; Saliba, Emmanuelle; Howard, Adam (December 15 2016). "Tall Tale or Satire? Authors of So-Called ‘Fake News’ Feel Misjudged".
  38. ↑ Frank, Priscilla (April 19, 2017). "Alex Jones Says He’s A Performance Artist. Surprisingly, Actual Performance Artists Agree.". The Huffington Post.
  39. ↑ "NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week". Associated Press/Chicago Tribune. May 26, 2017.
  40. ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/10/21/this-is-not-an-interview-with-banksy/
  41. ↑ http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2017/jul/05/stgeorgegazettecom/story-about-ryan-announcing-trumps-resignation-com/
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