Did the Chicago Sun-Times report the Pulse nightclub massacre six hours before it came out?
Introduction
On June 16, 2016 a website by the name of Superstation95 wrote a article claiming that the Chicago Sun-Times posted a article on the Pulse nightclub massacre six hours before it took occurred later that night. The website claims that a google search shows the article was posted at 8:00p.m, when the shooting happened at 2:00a.m. Superstation95 believes that the reason it was happened six hours before is because they knew about it before. He then goes one to claim that it is a false flag attack planned by the government. Although, there was a Atlanta Sun-Times shows that it was publish at 8:00p.m, I have researched and think that it is best to say that this fake news.
What I Found
When I started to research this topic and the article I found a lot of inconsistencies. The story that the article is talking about is actually from The Atlanta Sun-Times not the Chicago Sun-Times. So, Superstation95 didn’t even have the correct website. They even posted a picture of the website and it says Atlanta at the top. I also found that Snopes.com debunked this claim and actually got first hand information on why the Atlanta Sun-Times website says that their story was published six hours before the shooting happened. Snopes says that, “While the aggregation of the Atlanta Sun Times‘ report was incorrectly time stamped, the original content was clearly not” (LaCapria). To figure this out Snopes go a employee of the Atlanta Sun Times to explain that there is a flaw in their system that messes up the time zone of when it was actually published. Snopes also says the Superstation95 is actually know for creating misinformation like this to fit his agenda and promote his narrative.
Why this is wrong
After reading the story from Superstation95 and Snopes I realized that is whole situation can be deemed as a conspiracy theory. Superstation95 explains that the pulse nightclub was a false flag attack by the U.S government with no evidence other than a six hour difference of a news story from the actual shooting. You can quickly see that based on lack of evidence that is being presented that this cannot be true. Snopes.com also gave background information on the websites creator Hal Turner. Snopes claims that he is a white supremist who often dumps these stories with false information that cause fear and doubt. After reviewing all of this it is safe to say that this is another fake news story with a narrative to make something that it is not.
Conclusion
49 people died that night. It is terribly sad that their deaths are being mocked with fake news stories that cause confusion on the situation. That is the real danger of fake news. Fake news takes the attention away from the real problem and detours us from finding a real solution. Most fake news stories are connected to conspiracy theories. This is why it is important to quickly investigate and search for these stories and debunk them. False information is very dangerous and as we have seen before can cause some bigger problems in the country. It is always a good idea to look at what you are reading and make sure that it is true.