Paul Horner published some of the most democratic fake news show stories of the 2016 presidential election . Horner even said that he believes his deliberately put on stories avail get President Trump elect . But the fake intelligence author reportedly had a history of prescription drug vilification , and he was found bushed in his bed onSeptember 18th . He was 38 .
Horner ’s fake word stories were shared widely under several domain of a function , include ABCNews.com.co , a website that intentionally assay to trick multitude by appear , at first glimpse , to be ABC News . The story touched on everything from prevarication about President Obamainvalidating the 2016 election resultsto Lie aboutpaid demonstrator at Trump rallies . And each story was share hundreds of thou of time on Facebook and other social media outlets .
“ My site were cull up by Trump jock all the time . I think Trump is in the White House because of me , ” Horner tell theWashington Postback in November , shortly after President Trump was elected . “ His followers do n’t fact - check anything — they’ll post everything , consider anything . ”
Influential member of the Trump team even share the tale , like when former campaign chairman Corey Lewandowski tweeted an article about objector who were paid $ 3,500 to contradict Donald Trump . That story was completely fabricated . Donald Trump ’s second eldest son Eric Trump also shared Horner ’s faux stories .
But the integral bastard news endeavour made Horner , who lived just outside of Phoenix , a lot of money . He said that he graze in roughly $ 10,000 per calendar month from advert during the election season , even as company like Google were trying to crack down on fake news .
AsCBS News reports , Horner ’s cause of death has n’t been settle as toxicology reputation are still pending , but the Maricopa County aesculapian quizzer performed an autopsy and claims there were “ no star sign of loathsome play . ” A spokesperson for the medical examiner ’s function tell CBS News that , “ grounds at the scene suggested this could be an inadvertent overdose . ”
Horner appeared on CNN in December and champion his actions toAnderson Cooper . He enunciate that CNN and Fox News also spread out misinformation order “ they have schedule ” whereas his articles are clearly satire .
Paul Horner ’s crony , J.J. Horner , also defend his brother ’s fake news empire by say that he simply desire masses to think critically before sharing things that might be false online .
“ I opine he just wanted people to just think for themselves and be credible for their actions , ” J.J. Horner told CBS News . “ translate more , get more Byzantine instead of just blindly sharing things . ”
After the election , Horner said that he was a Hillary Clinton supporter and did n’t believe Trump could really get elected . But he defended his work as “ satire ” and seemed to constantly insist that everyone who facilitate his stories go viral should have done some fact - checking .
“ I did n’t think it was potential for him to get elect Chief Executive . I thought I was messing with the campaign , maybe I was n’t mess up them up as much as I want — but I never thought he ’d really get elected , ” Horner told theWashington Post .
“ I did n’t even think about it . In hindsight , everyone should ’ve see this coming — everyone assumed Hillary [ Clinton ] would just get in . But she did n’t , and Trump is Chief Executive . ”
[ CBS News ]
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