Law Student Unleashes Bombshell Allegation You Won't Believe: Fake News as Commercial Speech
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LAW STUDENT UNLEASHES BOMBSHELL
ALLEGATION YOU WON'T BELIEVE!: FAKE NEWS AS
COMMERCIAL SPEECH
Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the
human intelligence long enough to get money from it.
-Stephen Butler Leacocki
INTRODUCTION
During the 2016 election cycle, WTOE 5 News released an
article proclaiming, Pope Francis Shocks the World, Endorses
Donald Trump for President, Releases Statement.2 According to
Facebook, this article received 960,000 engagements, making it one
of the most widely circulated articles of 2016.3 The revelations in
this article were especially enticing because, just a few months
earlier during a speech in Mexico, Pope Francis said, [A] person
who thinks only about building walls . .. is not Christian.4 This
story was a reversal from the Vatican's longstanding refusal to
comment on political issues.5 Ultimately, the news was
unbelievable because the article and the site hosting the article were
both fabricated.6
The phenomenon of intentionally fraudulent, faux-journalistic
content rose to national attention after the 2016 presidential
election, but intentionally misleading or false news articles
predate this election cycle and transcend political subject matter.7
1. STEPHEN LEACOCK, THE GARDEN OF FOLLY 123 (1924).
2. Sydney Schaedel, Did the Pope Endorse Trump?, FACTCHECK.ORG (Oct.
24, 2016), http://www.factcheck.org/2016/10/did-the-pope-endorse-trump/.
3. See Hannah Ritchie, Read All About It: The Biggest Fake News Stories
of 2016, CNBC (Dec. 30, 2016, 2:04 AM), https://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/30/read
-all-about-it-the-biggest-fake-news-stories-of-2016.html (discussing an empirical
analysis of the timing and frequency of fake election stories' engagements,
which include shares, likes, reactions, and postings).
4. Daniel Burke, Pope Suggests Trump 'Is Not Christian,' CNN (Feb. 18,
2016, 10:47 PM), http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/18/politics/pope-francis-trump
-christian-wall/index.html.
5. See Yamiche Alcindor, Despite Timing, Bernie Sanders Says, Accepting
Vatican Offer Was a Must, N.Y. TIMES (Apr. 14, 2016), https://www.nytimes.com
/2016/04/15/us/politics/bernie-sanders-vatican.html.
6. Schaedel, supra note 2.
7. See Amanda Z. Naprawa, Don't Give Your Kid That Shot!: The Public
Health Threat Posed by Anti-Vaccine Speech and Why Such Speech is Not
Guaranteed Full Protection under the First Amendment, 11 CARDOZO PUB. L.
POL'Y & ETHICS J. 473, 507 (2013) (discussing implications for misleading anti-
vaccine advocacy).
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Law Student Unleashes Bombshell Allegation You Won't Believe: Fake News as Commercial Speech
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