Sometimes—actually, a lot lately—a news outlet faceplants so badly that you almost feel sorry for them. Almost.
It’s hard to feel sorry for Newsweek, though, because this fail is so stupid that you almost can’t help but laugh out loud. As our sister site Twitchy reported, the outlet decided a clearly joking tweet accompanied by an equally obviously AI-generated image was worthy of a fact check.
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Do these people get paid for this?
Here’s how it went down: a user named “bone” posted to social media, saying, “This 1721 painting by Deitz Nuützen predicted the Trump-Elon-RFK McDonalds dinner.” You don’t even have to look any further to know that what follows next is either going to be a joke or the ravings of a lunatic.
In this case, the name of the “painter” (search for Deez Nutz if you don’t get it) should have set off the alarm bells of anyone with a clue:
This 1721 painting by Deitz Nuützen predicted the Trump-Elon-RFK McDonalds dinner pic.twitter.com/CM9xDNmaKG
— bone (@boneGPT) November 18, 2024
You see this, you chortle, and you move on with your day—but not Newsweek. Bring on the fact-checkers!
RIP @Newsweek
Time to close up shop. You’ll never live this down. pic.twitter.com/KZSShxRLGL
— Courage Is A Habit (@CourageHabit) November 19, 2024
As of this writing, Newsweek has not pulled the idiotic report from their website.
X owner Elon Musk’s reputation of being incredibly smart survived this devious attempt at misinformation—he clearly wasn’t fooled:
😂
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2024
The mainstream media has a truly terrible record on “fact-checking”:
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Busting the Fact-Checkers, or Why Fact-Checkers Stink (VIP)
“Bone” himself got a kick out of the silliness:
they really dug around looking for Deitz Nuützen pic.twitter.com/jigIAqVjbK
— bone (@boneGPT) November 19, 2024
He even created a mock detailed history of the imagined painter; this is just part of it:
Deitz Nuützen (1694–1732) was a peculiar and enigmatic Dutch Baroque painter whose work baffled his contemporaries and continues to mystify art historians today. Known for blending traditional artistic styles with strikingly anachronistic imagery, Nuützen’s paintings have been jokingly referred to as “prophecies in oil…”
Nuützen’s other surviving works include The Flying Horse of Iron, a surreal depiction of a locomotive centuries before its invention, and The Gathering of the Elect, which eerily resembles a modern stock exchange. These works earned him notoriety during his lifetime, with some accusing him of witchcraft or heresy. Local records even note that he was once investigated by the church for “visions unbecoming of a Christian artist.”
Troll level 11.
I almost feel sorry for the poor guy who had to write the fact check. After all, if your editor tells you to write something up, you better get to it.
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Of course this is who is fact checking a joke. They wonder why they lost and no one trusts these jokes. pic.twitter.com/nJ60bQuCVM
— MISTAKES WERE MADE (@MISTAKES_W_MADE) November 19, 2024
This may not be as embarrassing as Joe and Mika’s epic flip flop over at MSNBC, where they went from eight years of calling Trump Hitler to suddenly visiting him at Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring, but it’s still pretty humiliating.
You’ve Been Trump’d! Newsweek Becomes Punchline By Fact Checking Future-Predicting Prank Paintinghttps://t.co/tfPtvaEQDv
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) November 19, 2024
