Fake news hits home for Sedro-Woolley family
SEDRO-WOOLLEY Tim McCray signed into Facebook a few weeks ago and scrolled through his news feed as he does nearly every morning.
Something caught his eye. It was an article a family member had shared, titled, Thug fatally shoots himself while taking anti-Trump selfie.
The article, purported to describe an event that changed the lives of McCray and members of his family, was mostly a lie.
On Feb. 28 in Concrete, McCrays 43-year-old stepson, Joel Melom, accidentally shot and killed himself while taking photos with a gun he believed was not loaded.
That is fact.
But the article and its inflammatory headline, found on a website that looked legitimate and was shared on Facebook, included embellishments and lies, even as it cited the Skagit Valley Herald as the source of its information.
The article, under that false headline, can now be found on more than 100,000 internet sites.
Many are accompanied by a photograph of a black man holding a cellphone and a handgun a purported anti-Trump thug.
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/fake-news-hits-home-for-sedro-woolley-family/